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STEREOPHILE VOL.38 N0.8 AUGUST 2015

EXCLUSIVE

INTERVIEW:

ART DUDLEY
VISITS THE
SOUNDSMITH

ONLINE AUTHORITY:
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AUGUST

2015

The BACCH-SP

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Robert Harley, Editor, The Absolute Sound

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John Atkinson, Editor, Stereophiie

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THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS
AS THERE ARE EXPERTS

AS WE

BY JASON VICTOR SERINUS

SEE IT

THIS issue: What's makes readers
of this magazine different from
"normal" human beings?

What’s an Audiophile? (Part 634)

M ost of US have experienced the proverbial

curveball that comes out of nowhere to smack
us right in the head. My most recent such
encounter was pitched by StereopMe contribu-
tor Steve Guttenberg.

Steve’s whammy arrived amid an e-mail exchange among
Stereophile writers concerning a rather clueless column in
another pubhcation on the dearth of women audiophiles.
After asking how many female audiophiles each of us knew,
Steve G. defined what he meant by audiophile: “a person
who frets over their system, agonizes over choices, loves
gear, and sometimes music. You know, the kind of person
who reads Stereophile or The Absolute Sound. Merely owning a
nice stereo doesn’t make you an audiophile. Owning a Leica
doesn’t make you a photographer. You have to be at least a
little obsessed.”

Huh, thought I. That may be true of some audiophiles,
especially gearheads, but it sure isn’t true of me. Decades
ago, when I made my first foray into the High End by
buying used Advent and then Spica speakers, heavy
speaker cables, and a CD player (which I hated), it was
because I wanted to get closer to the source of musical
creation. I wanted to get inside the throats of singers
I loved, and feel more of that unquantifiable melding
of head and heart, viscera and spirit, that is the essence
of transcendent musicianship. For me, better gear =
greater chance of Uftoff.

Does my obsession with music rather than gear make
me a pretend audiophile? Might it be possible that my
real reason for writing for Stereophile is that it provides
perfect cover for a lack of true audiophile credentials?

Then came the reality check. I bought those heavy speak-
er cables after reading an article in Stereo Review that pur-
ported to prove that speaker cables didn’t make an audible
difference. My intuition told me that the article was wrong,
and that I should try heavier-gauge wire. Wasn’t I already
eager to spend hours comparing cables and components?

Decades later, don’t I have a large collection of Styro-
foam packing squares that I stick between cables to keep
them at least an inch apart? Don’t I insist on repositioning
both them and the 2x4s that support my Nordost speaker
cables every time the slightest movement propels them to
the floor? Haven’t I spent endless hours trying to keep that
little Antelope Zodiac Gold DAC on its supports, even as
my interconnects pull it off yet again and I scream to myself,
“Just rest it on your desktop, you stubborn ass, and pretend
you can’t hear a difference— even though you can!”

Momentarily shaken to my knees, which is often where
I find myself when I’m tweaking things, I acknowledge that
I am guilty, as charged, of being obsessed. But is it obsessive
behavior that makes me an audiophile? Or does it simply
confirm that I’ve been saddled with a generous helping of
neurosis that finds its perfect outlet in audiophiUa.

It was time to confer with an audiophile buddy, Jeremiah

Horn, who studied bass performance at the Peabody Con-
servatory of Music. He’d just spent $3000 on a new Sony
HAP-ZIES music server and a Shunyata Research Zitron
Alpha Digital power cable. I asked Jeremiah what made him
an audiophile.

“A sensitivity to nuance, and a desire to hear everything
that artists put into their music.” Phew. That’s more like it.

I then had another opportunity to test Steve G.’s theory.
Jeremiah told me that he was first going to listen to his Sony
with its stock power cable, then swap that out for the $995
Shunyata Zitron, to hear if there was enough improvement
in the sound to justify the extra expense. I asked what his
Sony was plugged into, and what other power cables he had
in his system. When he told me that his power source was
a PS Audio Power Plant Premiere connected to a Wyred-
4Sound P-1 Ultra, I suggested that he also try switching that
power cord out for the Shunyata, to see where each would
make the most difference. Things got even juicier when I
learned that, for two other com-
ponents, Jeremiah was also using
Acoustic Zen Tsunami III power
cords, which he could also move
around to determine optimal
positioning.

According to Steve, any
bona-fide audiophile would have
jumped at the opportunity to add
more variables to his listening
tests. Instead, Jeremiah moaned.
He was far more interested in
doing one simple experiment,

and listening to music. His ultimate obsession was not listen-
ing to multiple permutations and combinations of gear, but
to as much music as possible, at the highest quality.

What’s an audiophile? I asked engineer David v.R.
Bowles, who has served two terms on the Board of Gov-
ernors of the Audio Engineering Society, is a guest lecturer
at NYU Steinhardt, and records the Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and other
artists. “An audiophile loves good sound and good music,”
he declared, “and strives to extract great sound from quality
recordings in order to experience music to its fullest.”

A devil’s advocate might counter that topflight recording
engineers such as Bowles invariably obsess over microphone
placements, choices of equipment, formats, edits, and all
that. But I’m sticking with his and Jeremiah’s definitions.

For most audiophiles, I believe, music, not gear, is primary.
Which is not to deny that, when it comes to obsessing,
many of us get so lost in fussing over details that we lose
sight of the forest for the trees. But that just makes us ecolo-
gists as well as music-loving audiophiles. ■

Jason Victor Serinus (STLetters@sorc.com is a professional whistler
and the voice of Woodstock in the Emmy-nominated Peanuts cartoon
She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown.

Is it obsessive
behavior that
makes me an
audiophile? For
most audiophiles,
I believe, music
is primary.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

53 Klaus Heymann

The man behind Naxos on streaming, cheap
classical CDs, and possibly the future of the
recorded music business, talks to Robert Baird.

FOLLOW-UP

109 Ayre Acoustics AX-5 Twenty integrated amplifier

by Art Dudley

EQUIPMENT REPORTS

62 Ayre Acoustics MX-R Twenty
monoblock power amplifier

by John Atkinson

75 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A
power amplifier

by Fred Kaplan

85 Falcon LS3/5a loudspeaker

by Herb Reichert

95 Rega DAC-R D/A processor

by Jon Iverson

113 Bricasti Design M28 monoblock power amplifier

by John Atkinson

SEE OUR EXCLUSIVE EQUIPMENT REPORT ARCHIVE AT WWW.STEREOPHILE.COM

Stereophile (USPS #734-970 ISSN: 0585-2544) Vol.38 No.8, August 2015, Issue Number 427.
Copyright © 2015 by TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC. All rights reserved. Published
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stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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COLUMNS

3 As We See It

What makes readers of this magazine different from "normal"
human beings, asks Jason Victor Serinus.

11 Letters

Readers remember Joe Grado, ask Art Dudley to stop making
them laugh, complain about comparisons, and declare that all
Ethernet cables must sound the same.

Get on your Soapbox! Visit the forums at
www.stereophile.com.

117 Record Reviews

For the August Recording of the Month we've chosen Live At The
Fillmore East October 4 and 5, 1968, a remarkable, never-before-
released live recording of Sly & The Family Stone at the peak of
their powers. In Classical this month, we have new recordings of
the music of Gustav Mahler and Steve Reich. In Rock/Pop, there's
a new recording from bluesman, Roy Rogers. And in Jazz, the
latest from William Parker and Harry Allen get a critical listen.

125 Manufacturers' Comments

Wilson Benesch, Falcon Acoustics, Rega Research, and Ayre
Acoustics comment on our reviews of their products.

15 Industry Update

High-end audio news, including the shows and dealer-sponsored
events taking place in August and September 2015, plus coverage
of May's High-End 2015 show in Munich.

Want to know more? Go to the "News Desk" at
www.stereophile.com for up-to-the-minute info.

21 Analog Corner

Sperling-Audio's L-1 turntable and TA-1 tonearm get thoroughly
Mikey'd.

29 Listening

Art Dudley hangs out with phono-cartridge maven Peter Leder-
mann, of The Soundsmith.

37 The Fifth Element

John Marks auditions Wilson Benesch's remarkable entry-level
Square One loudspeaker, and recommends music not to be
missed!

45 Gramophone Dreams

Herb Reichert takes the smallest Magnepan speaker, the .7, with
its DWM woofer, out for a spin around his music collection.

130 Aural Robert

How many bass players does it take to...? Somehow Robert Baird
has bass players on brain!

p.119

INFORMATION

128 Audio Mart

126 Manufacturers'
Showcase

127 Dealers' Showcase
127 Advertiser Index

p.117

Follow Stereophile on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/stereophilemag.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

Hear it all,
without hearing
all about it.

I I

Fathom® IWS

In Wall Subwoofer Systems

EDITOR JOHN ATKINSON
MUSIC EDITOR ROBERT BAIRD
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

MARTIN COLLOMS, MICHAEL FREMER, MICHAEL LAVORGNA,
JOHN MARKS, KALMAN RUBINSON
EDITOR AT LARGE ART DUDLEY
WEB PRODUCER JON IVERSON

FOUNDER J. GORDON HOLT
COVER PHOTO ERIC SWANSON

ART DIRECTOR JEREMY MOYLER

MANAGING EDITOR RUSTY KURTZ

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS (AUDIO)

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ROBERT DEUTSCH, SHANNON DICKSON, LARRY GREENHILL,
JON IVERSON, FRED KAPLAN, DAVID LANDER, ERICK LICHTE,
PAUL MESSENGER, HERB REICHERT, MARKUS SAUER,

JASON VICTOR SERINUS

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August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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LETTERS

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR

Equestrian audiophiles

Editor:

Two of your advertisers, Naim and the
resurrected SAE brand, are now touting
their superampHfiers’ capabilities in the
unit of horsepower. While those of us who
have a hazy recollection of high-school
physics recall the interchangeability of
units of power (as with those of length),
does this mean a new trend in high-end
audio is emerging, and if so, why?

I am sure the late Mr. James Watt’s
[1736-1819] feelings would not be hurt.
However, given that he lived in the era
of the horse and buggy, his goal was to
fashion machinery that would surpass the
capabUity of a horse. Therefore, the logic
of these advertisers seems counterintui-
tive, at least to this reader. Will their next
move be to specify the dimensions of
their products in cubits or, Heaven forbid,
furlongs? —Jonathan Kleefie

jkleefie@hidmc.hatvard.edu

When giants walked the world

Editor:

Herb Reichert’s touching tribute to
Joe Grado in the May issue reminded
me of my meeting Joe ca 1962. 1 was
a college student working part time at
High Fidelity Unhmited, in Portland,
Oregon. One day, Joe walks in with a
prototype turntable mounted with his
familiar gunstock arm, and a brand-new
moving-coil cartridge that sold for the
unprecedented price of $100! This at a
time when the best cartridges of the day
sold for half that. After hearing it, I knew
1 had to have it.

Later, we talked speakers. Joe told us
of his choice of a system comprising an
Acoustic Research AR-IW for the bass,
a Janszen electrostatic midrange (above
a certain serial number), and a Dukane
lonovac tweeter. Again, I knew 1 had
to assemble such a system. Eventually,

1 did, with borrowed pieces from the
store and friends. One can imagine the
clutter, in our small apartment Hving
room, of the six speakers, two stereo
amphfiers (Marantz model 8B), two
electronic crossovers (Marantz model 3),
and connecting cables, to say nothing of
a source. My bride of only a few months
was concerned but understanding. After
nearly 53 years, she still is— but I have my
own room for the equipment now.

During my two years at the store, 1
met and visited with other audio giants,
including Saul Marantz, Paul Khpsch,
and Dirk Roos of McIntosh Labs. Herb-
thanks for the memories. —Ron Maynard
Portland, OR

Interconnect envy

Editor:

1 read with interest Art Dudley’s state-
ment that “any Im interconnect pair that
sells for $5000 or more ought to sound
amazingly, obviously good and increase
the size and functionahty of one’s penis”
(“Listening,” June, p.29). I am now very
concerned, and perhaps a little terrified,
to return the $25,000 interconnects that
didn’t quite “satisfy.”

Frankly, this is an entirely new area of
Wife Acceptance Factor that I had never
considered. Here’s hoping that my wife
is once again impressed by the jump and
performance of RadioShack’s top-of-the-
Hne RCA cable. —Jay Jackson

jhjorlando@gmail.com

Outrageous

Editor:

While reading Mr. Dudley’s most recent
column on cables (June, p.29), I was
embarrassed to discover that I actually
laughed out loud not once, but three
times on the first page alone. In addition,
after the third outburst I found it neces-
sary to put down the magazine and wipe
my eyes free of the spontaneous accumu-
lation of liquid that had occurred around
their sockets. To add insult to injury. I’m
also forced to admit to his being correct
on all points contained within the article.

Upon further review, I have no choice
but to ask Mr. Dudley to: 1) curtail his
outrageous sense of humor, and 2) stop
being so damned right all the time. If
these requests are not adhered to in all
future writings by Mr. Dudley, I shall

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR should be sent
as faxes or e-mails only. Fax: (212) 915-
4167. E-mail: STIetters(g)sorc.com. Please
note: We are unable to answer requests
for information about specific products
or systems. If you have problems with
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TAKE HEED! Unless marked otherwise, all letters
to the magazine and its writers are assumed
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vigorous debate implied by the First Amendment,
and unless we are requested not to, we publish
correspondents' e-mail addresses.

be forced to cancel my subscription and
refuse all future bunnies given by him.

—Chris Berens
Disneyland, CA
chrisberens@shcglobal.net

Listening to music

Editor:

Because of a lack of free time, I mostly
listen to music on my clock radio, kitchen
radio, and car radio. Thanks to excel-
lent classical-music content on radio in
the Washington, DC, area, I don’t miss
a thing. In fact, that’s how I decide what
to buy. And when I do get a chance
to spend time in the hving room, my
vintage system sounds great. Much of it
came from eBay and flea-market items
that I repaired, but that leaves more
money to spend on music. —Bill Seabrook
Dunkirk, MD
BSeahrook@weta.org

Music as a focus activity

Editor:

John Atkinson was correct in what he said
about the mainstream-press reviews of the
PonoPlayer (May, p.3; June, p.l23). I read
a couple of them. The problem is not that
the writer does not know about audio,
but that he does not know about listening
to music. Many music lovers think they
are hstening to music, but they are not
hearing the music as a concert experi-
ence. I sold some of my very good audio
components to my neighbor, and he loves
them, and has music playing often, but he
has not really listened to them. Like most
people, he listens while engaging in other
activities, and does not Usten concert
style. He has no setup for sitting down
and hearing music as a focus activity.

I tell my friends who hear my system
while standing up that the sound they
are hearing is crap compared to the
sound they will hear when sitting in the
Hstening seat. The problem is that many
people don’t want to invest the mental
capacity that is required to Hsten concert
style. This means that they seldom engage
with music on a conscious level— or get to
understand the properties of good sound.

—Peter D’Castro
Victoria, Australia
hjsimpsonl @iprimus.com.au

CONTINUED ON PAGE 124

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

ACOUSTIC SOUNDS

THE CCR BOX SET

Creedence Clearwater Revival
Absolute Originals

TONY BENNETT
CARf^GlEliALL

TONY BENNETT
At Carnegie Hall

DAVE BRUBECK
Time Out

THE BEACH BOYS
Surfer Girl

TITLES BELOW ALSO AVAILABLE ON SACO

EIWS

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
Texas Hurricane - Box Set

NAT "KING" COLE
The Nat "King" Coie Story

THE DOORS
Infinite - Box Set

ROGER WATERS
Amused To Death

HARRY BELAFONTE
At Carnegie Hall

JULIE LONDON
Julie Is Her Name,
Vol. 2

DUKE ELLINGTON
Masterpieces By
Ellington

CAT STEVENS
Tea For The
Tillerman

DEAN MARTIN
Dream With Dean

THE BEACH BOYS
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INDUSTRY

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS

UPDATE

US: YOUR LOCAL
NEWSSTAND

John Atkinson

Just a note that with this issue, LP ma-
ven Michael Fremer starts his 2P^ year
of contributing his “Analog Corner”
column to Stereophile (p.2l) Thanks
Mikey. Here’s to the next 20 years!

GERMANY: MUNICH

Paul Messenger
The annual High End show in Mu-
nich, held this year on May 14-17, may
now be the biggest, most important
event on the planet dedicated to high-
end stereo audio equipment. For more
years than I care to remember, it’s been
organized— and very well, too— by the
High End Society of a major Western
economy. No brief report can possibly
do justice to a show as large as High
End. This one mainly focuses on UK
and international brands.'

High End has survived a transplant
of some 250 miles, from an excellent
hotel on the outskirts of Frankfurt that
the show had outgrown, to a larger,
much more flexible exhibition center
on the edge of Munich. And while
the Munich facihty still attracts a fair
amount of criticism for its unsup-
portive acoustics. High End seems to
have survived entirely unscathed its
competition from a rival audio show,
HiFiDeluxe, based in the Munich
Marriott hotel and held at the same
time. High End has gone from strength
to strength, and the 2015 event was no
exception. The number of exhibitors
was up by 11% over 2014, visitors up

Clockwise from upper right: Mark Dohimann and his

1 turntable; the Australian Kyron dipole speaker; High

2015 took place in a large, airy convention center.

by 16% to 20,637, and the show has
become a must-visit for the European
and Far Eastern audio trade.

If the UK is full of media stories
about the return of vinyl, Germans can
simply point out that, as far as they’re
concerned, LPs never went away. In
fact, all of Eastern Europe now seems
involved in vinyl replay, from the rela-
tively affordable Pro-Ject turntables
made in the Czech Republic, to the
extraordinary Reed turntable from
Lithuania, which has not only two
motors, but belt and idler-wheel drive
(don’t ask why).

With the emergence of Rumen
Artarski’s Audio Union, I suspect that
Bulgaria is about to become a “center
of hi-fi excellence.” The Bulgarian
Thrax Audio brand continues to
expand, adding hybrid amplifiers, the
Lyra d’Appolito speaker with an alloy
cabinet and a complex waveguide for
its tweeter, and the Hehx 1 turntable,

1 You can find our almost live on-line coverage of
High End 2015 at www.stereophile.com/category/
munich-2015, www.audiostream.com/category/
munich-2015, and www.analogplanet.com/category/
munich-2015. —Ed.

SUBMISSIONS: Those promoting audio-related
seminars, shows, and meetings should e-mail
the when, where, and who to JAtkinson(a)
enthusiastnetwork.com at least eight weeks
before the month of the event. The deadline for
the October 2015 issue is July 20, 2015.

CALENDAR OF
INDUSTRY EVENTS

ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES:

We have a page on the Stereophile
website dedicated solely to you:
www.stereophile.com/audiophile-
societies. If you'd like to have your
audio-society information posted
on the site, e-mail Chris Vogel at
infoiffiXLinkAudio.com.

Please note that it is inappropriate
for a retailer to promote a new
product line in "Calendar" unless
this is associated with a seminar or
similar event.

ARIZONA

■ Wednesday, July 29, 7-9 pm:

The Arizona Audio Video Ciub

will hold its monthly meeting at
a new location: Esoteric Audio, in
downtown Phoenix (111 W. Monroe
Avenue at First Avenue). We will be
listening to Esoteric's frontline audio
components, such as Aesthetix,
Boulder, Devialet, Focal, Magico,
Rockport, and VTL. Guests are
welcome and refreshments will be
served. For more information, contact
our president, Adam Goldfine, at
goldfineam@aol.com; or Esoteric
Audio, at (480) 946-8128.

CALIFORNIA

■ Sunday, July 26, 2-5pm: The Los

Angeies & Orange County Audio
Society will hold its monthly meeting
at The Source Audio/Video Design
Group, in Torrance (3035 Kashiwa
Street). Our hosts, Steven and Jason
Lord, will demonstrate top-of-the-
line equipment in spaces custom-
designed to maximize your musical
(and visual) enjoyment. Listen to
Boulder, Dan D'Agostino, Denon,
Linn, Marantz, MBL, McIntosh,
Meridian, Moon, Pearl Evolution,
Sonus Faber, Totem Acoustic,

Vienna Acoustics, Wadia, and other
fine examples of high-end equipment
that will allow those attending to
make comparisons and/or just
enjoy the music. Included will be the
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

INDUSTRY UPDATE

designed by Mark Dohlmann. Having
heard that the Helix had particularly
clever mechanical isolation, I gave the
sample at High End a hefty shove, not
realizing that it was actually play-
ing at the time. The entire nirntable
moved alarmingly, but the cartridge in
the Schroder tonearm continued to
imperturbably track the groove, testify-
ing to the remarkable efficacy of the
supporting stmcture made by Minus
K, which normally suppHes academic
instinitions and the like with supports
for delicate optical measuring equip-
ment; I suspect Minus K has found a
new market.

I guess Slovenia sort of counts as
Eastern Europe, though Frank Kuzma
seems to have been on the hi-fi
scene for as long as I can remember.
Reflecting the current trend toward
longer tonearms, his controversial new
4Pointl4 is no fewer than 14" long. I
made the point that the disadvantage
of so long an arm’s high effective mass
would be greater than any bonus of
geometry, but according to Kuzma,
the arm’s length helps it cope with the
vibrations generated by the cartridge.

Vinyl was ubiquitous at High
End 2015, but I also saw at least two

examples of new, high-tech DAC tech-
nology. Chord Electronics has long
been associated with the unique Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
DAC technology developed by
consultant Rob Watts through several
generations. Chord’s portable Hugo
DAC has been particularly successful
commercially, and has more recently
been joined by a much heavier and
improved tabletop model, the Hugo
TT. In Munich, however. Chord
introduced a far more advanced DAC,
the DAVE (for Digital-to-Analogue
Veritas in Extremis). Based on the large
LX75 version of the Spartan 6 FPGA,
the DAVE is claimed to significantly
improve timing and noise shaping, and
its reconstmction filter has no fewer
than 164,000 taps— more than six times
the number used in the Hugo. It will
ship this fall.

I also encountered Larry GuUman,
who described a “new-generation”
DAC technology introduced at the
show by his company, California’s
MSB Technology. Critically, output
from a new multichip ladder DAC
produces enough voltage and current
to drive a pair of headphones without
requiring the usual op-amp output

stage.

T+AElektroakustik, one of

Germany’s m^or hi-fi specialists, in-
troduced the new R Series 2000, based
on the high-voltage approach used
to operate devices under more Hnear
conditions in T-I-A’s earfier HV series.
T-l-A actually introduced some tube
electronics a few years ago; I was sur-
prised to discover that they’d discon-
tinued these and reverted to solid-state.
Lothar Wiemann, director of R&D,
explained that the company had been
running out of NOS tubes and wasn’t
happy with the performance of brand-
new devices (possibly because the use
in tubes of certain materials has been
banned on safety grounds).

Major German electronics brand,
Burmester Audiosysteme, was
showing the new 150 network player
and 151 Musiccenter, but arguably its
most interesting initiatives are its two
new Phase 3 exercises in styhng: The
Bauhaus-influenced Retro Style and
the more industrial Loft Style both
look strikingly original, combining the
large, stand-mounted B 15 loudspeak-
ers with a 161 receiver and a stereo
power amp.

New loudspeakers were everywhere

Experience it. TheCableCo.com

INDUSTRY UPDATE

at High End, but speculation was rife
about the imphcations of the news
that the Music Group, owners of
pro-audio brand Behringer, had just
taken over the TC Group, which
owns Tannoy and Dynaudio. Tannoy
showed a number of new initiatives,
including its relatively inexpensive new
Revolution XT range of speakers, with
extensive changes to the motors; revi-
sions of the Prestige (now GR) models;
and bass EQ revisions with massive
new plinths for the Definition models.

Other potentially interesting
speakers from UK brands included
ProAc’s hefty Response K8, with
its shallow midrange horn milled

from solid aluminum, and the Neat
Acoustics Momentum SX7i, which is
much larger than its previous. Motive
models. However, the BBC’s influence
remains very strong: Graham Audio,
with help from Spendor founder
Spencer Hughes’ son Derek, has been
licensed to produce the BBC’s very
bulky LS5/8 design, alongside the
smaller LS5/9, and has purchased the
Chartwell name in order to produce
the LS3/5a.^ No less interesting is
the System 3D, a passive, four-box,
PA-style speaker system developed by
Hughes for the Royal Opera House,
in London’s Covent Garden. Harbeth
Audio, too, is following a BBC-heri-

Left to right: Concrete Audio's wall-mount
speaker with its 41 tiny drivers; the extraordinary
Onda Ligera speaker; tonearm guru Frank
Kuzma.

tage agenda, albeit without licensing
designs to manufacture replicas; the
commercial success of its Super HL5p-
lus has led to the creation of this year’s
significantly larger Monitor 40.2.

Picking my way through the many
other speaker brands exhibiting at
High End 2015, 1 found two based on
single full-range drivers. JoSound’s
Homs is claimed to combine the ad-

2 See Herb Reichert’s review of the Falcon LS3/5a
elsewhere in this issue (p.85).— Ed.

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INDUSTRY UPDATE

vantages of horn, reflex, and trans-
mission-line loading, and is certainly
more compact than earlier examples.
Voxativ has added to its compact,
wideband Pi speaker the 9.87 System—
a dipole sub-70Hz woofer that seemed
very effective.

Full-range dipole operation was
being promoted by a very impressive
Australian brand, Kyron Audio, via its
Kronos speaker, which has integral ac-
tive amplification. Perhaps the weirdest
dipole speaker— nay, the most bizarre
speaker of any type— was from Latvia’s
Onda Ligera, whose Reflector 218Q
has no baffle whatsoever; instead, four
large bass drivers point rearward, com-
pletely surrounding a mid/treble horn.

Not dipolar but no less strange
was the German company Concrete
Audio’s superslim, wall-mounted
panel speaker with no fewer than
41 tiny drive-units, driven actively
as a two-way. More conventional in
outline but with particularly interest-
ing technology details was a speaker
from another German company.
Audio Physic: Their new Avanti
floorstander has a woofer cone of pre-
stressed aluminum, ceramic foams in
its enclosure, and foamed copper in its
crossover network. From Switzerland,
Boenicke Audio’s W8SE-I- sounded
much larger than its size had led me to

Clockwise from upper left: Burmester's Loft Style system; the
Lithuanian Reed turntable with belt- and idler-drive; Derek Hughes;
the Bulgarian Thrax Lyra speaker.

expect, its tiny dimensions disguising a
number of special tuning techniques—
and a hefty price. Focal introduced
the two models of its new Sopra Une,
to fill the gap between its Electra
and Utopia lines. The Sopras feature
shaped and time-aligned front panels,
inverted-dome tweeters of beryllium
loaded by horns at the rear, and a
tuned mass damper that’s claimed to
reduce midrange distortion by 70%.
Focal’s electronics partner Naim Au-
dio’s NAP200, ’250, and ’300 power
amps now include versions of the
discrete regulator (DR) power supplies

that first appeared three years ago in
Naim’s outboard preamplifier supplies
(see “Industry Update,” October 2012,
Vol.35 No.lO).

One of the more impressive dem-
onstrations was purely visual. I found
Max Townshend, of Townshend
Audio, maker of the Seismic Isolation
platforms, jumping up and down in
front of couple of floorstanders, one
on spikes, the other spring-decoupled.
Each was connected to an iPad display
that clearly showed the efficacy of
the spring decoupling, despite using
a speaker with greater bass output. It
was also good to see that Meridian
had taken a large room in which to
promote its MQA digital process-
ing initiative.^ Principal Bob Stuart
told me that more than 100 business
partners had signed up, that MQA was
now an operation entirely separate
from Meridian, and that the next
major announcement will be in early
September at IFA, the huge annual
consumer-electronics show held in
Berlin. ■

3 See www.stereophile.com/content/ive-heard-fli-
ture-streaming-meridians-mqa and www.stereophile.
com/content/ mqa-munich.— Ed.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

world premiere of a new Focal speaker.
Industry representatives will be on hand
to discuss their brands, and Eastwind
Import will offer for sale personally
selected vinyl and CDs. A raffle is
planned, and an extraordinary lunch
will be served. Parking is free. Guests,
visitors, and new members are invited.
For more information, visit www.laocas.
com or call Bob Levi at (714) 281-5850.
■ Friday-Sunday, August 14-16: The
California Audio Show takes place at
the Westin San Francisco Airport, 1 Old

Bayshore Highway, Millbrae 94030.

For more information, visit http://
caaudioshow.com.

■ Sunday, August 23, 2-5pm: The
Los Angeles & Orange County Audio
Society will hold its monthly meeting
at The Audio Salon, in Santa Monica
(at Bergamot Station, 3035 Kashiwa
Street, Gallery FI). Our host, Maier
Shadi, will demonstrate top-of-the-line
equipment in a space custom-designed
to allow music to sound like music.
Audio Alchemy's Peter Madnick, who
been a part of this industry for over

40 years, will address the Society.

For our meeting, the Audio Salon will
feature the latest electronics from
Audio Alchemy — a spectacular system
at a price that won't break the bank.
Eastwind Import will be on hand to
offer for sale personally selected vinyl
and CDs. A raffle is planned and an
extraordinary lunch will be served.
Parking is free. Guests, visitors, and
new members are invited. For more
information, visit www.theaudiosalon.
com and www.laocas.com, or call Bob
Levi at (714) 281-5850.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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ANALOG BY MICHAEL

CORNER

FREMER

From the Twilight Zone

INSIDER VIEWS ON EVERYTHING VINYL

THIS issue: Sperling-Audio's L-1
turntable and TA-1 tonearm
get thoroughly Mikey'd.

W ith its swept- wing
shape and platter-
forward design,
Sperling-Audio’s L-1
turntahle ($35,950, without tonearm)
stands out in a crowd. This high-mass
design from Germany is the result of
a collaboration between Ansgar Sper-
ling and Michael Bonninghoff, two
fiftysomething engineers who began
working together in recording studio
construction.

Both also bring to the L-Ts design
and construction years of experience
in signal processing. For years, Bon-
ninghoff was the chief developer at
Brauner microphones, and today is
the technical director of the German
pro-audio company SiE.A. Sperling
worked in radio and signal process-
ing, and has a strong interest in tuhed
electronics.

The Sperling's Design

The L-Ts massive aluminum-alloy platter alone weighs
60 lbs; the entire turntable assembly weighs about 110 lbs.
The massive bearing assembly bolts to the lower aluminum
V-shaped wing, which sits on three massive, adjustable feet
of machined aluminum, the central one directly below and
coupled to the platter’s bearing assembly, where it acts as an
energy drain. The points of the feet sit in nicely machined
and plated dimpled discs.

The two halves of the “V,” each topped by a mounting
plate for a tonearm, are of sandwich construction: three
plates of aluminum alternating with slabs of a variety of
materials, all five layers secured together with four beefy
M8x90 bolts. The sandwich fillings can be of polyoxymeth-
ylene (POM), acrylic, slate, or wood, depending on the
customer’s preference— the tuning-obsessed can, wdth little
difficulty, swap them out and compare their sounds.

The L-Ts most obvious imiovation is the armboard’s
mounting plate, which looks like something filched from
an observatory. It consists of a pair of eccentrically arranged
circular plates, each of which can be rotated, then locked
down with machine screws that fit into slots around the
plate’s periphery. Drilling the arm-mounting hole off-center
in the inner of the two circular plates allows for an even
wider range of adjustment of the tonearm’s pivot-to-spindle
distance.

A removable, crescent-shaped insert next to the circular
plates can be swapped out with the plates to provide enough
pivot-to-spindle distance for 12" and even longer arms.
While this requires a lot of screwing and unscrewing, it also
provides unparalleled flexibility of positioning. By noting the

numbers and letters silkscreened on and around the various
plates, you can easily swap out multiple arms without having
to remeasure and readjust pivot-to-spindle distances.

The M-2 motor housing is also large and massive, and
rests on three conical, height-adjustable aluminum feet
sitting in dimpled discs. UK-based Trident Engineering
provides the low-voltage DC motor, which is driven by
the outboard, zero-feedback NRM-l/S motor controller.

At the 2013 Munich High-End Show, Ansgar Sperling told
me that the famous German optics company Carl Zeiss AG
manufactures the high-precision motor pulley and does all
of the plating.

The platter is driven by an inflexible Mylar tape that
resembles the clear leader of reel-to-reel audio tape. Sperling
provides a few variants that it claims alter the sound. To
make it easier to use and adjust tension, the motor is secured
in a movable platform inside the M-2, with its distance from
the platter adjustable via a system of dials for coarse and fine
tunings.

Setup and Use

For $35,950, you’re entitled to but don’t always get the level
of quality of L-Ts exquisite machining and plating— which
also goes for the Sperling’s wheeled road case, one of the
biggest and most attractive I’ve seen. To review turntables, I
use a large Harmonic Resolution Systems base; I adjusted its
six feet for the L-Ts high mass, and I and Gideon Schwartz,
of Sperling’s US distributor. Audio Arts, hoisted the L-1
onto the base. That was the easy part.

Then we assembled the substantial inverted-ball bearing
system. Next to that of my Continuum Audio Labs Cah-

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

( ( ( ANALOG CORNER

burn turntable, which I’ve seen only
in photos, the L-l’s bearing system is
the beefiest I’ve seen on a turntable,
and consists of a large-diameter spindle
integrated into the oil reservoir, the
latter bolted to the main chassis. To
fill the reservoir with oil, you remove
the sump’s upper ring by loosening six
screws. After placing the tiny ball atop
the spindle, you dribble oil onto the
ball, letting it flow down the shaft and
into the reservoir, until there’s a pool
of oil about 1mm deep. Then you slide
the equally massive spindle bushing
over the top, to capture the ball. Then
you rotate the bushing to circulate
the oil. Add oil until it’s level with the
top of the reservoir, then place a pair
of O-rings in the grooves, sandwich-
ing the upper ring you’ve previously
removed. To seal the reservoir, tighten
the screws.

Then it was time to hoist the platter
and lower it over the bearing, and here
we ran into trouble: The platter, still
cold from shipping, wouldn’t fit over
the spindle. It got stuck, and removing
it wasn’t easy. Schwartz had to leave,
so he called in Michael Trei, his go-to
setup man, and the guy I recommend
when people ask for someone good to

set up a turntable after I’ve had to turn
them down. (I don’t have time.) By
the time Trei arrived, the platter had
warmed up, and now it shpped over
the spindle, if still not all that easily.

We looped the clear drive belt over
platter and pulley, adjusted the tension,
plugged in the motor controller, and
the platter began spinning.

The L-Ts two speeds of 33 V 3 and
45rpm can be individually adjusted
with a pair of concentric, vernier-type
dials toward the front that, depending
on where you place the controller, can
too easily be nudged during everyday
record playing; it’s a good idea to regu-
larly check the speed with a strobe.

Sperling suppHed two armboards:
one each for my Kuzma 4Point and
Sperhng’s own TA-1 arm. Since I was
famihar with the Kuzma but not the
TA-1, 1 began by setting up the 4Point.
That done, it was time to play an LP.

Hmmm. ..

Sperhng has gone to great lengths to
produce a dense, dead, high-mass,
energy-absorbing and -draining
aluminum platter that’s among the
most massive I’ve encountered. But for
reasons I don’t understand, they chose

to top the platter with eight raised,
wedge-shaped “exserts” (ie, the opposite
of inserts) that attach to the platter top
with tiny screws. The record rests atop
the exserts— and that's the problem. An
LP is a relatively hghtweight piece of
plastic that, if not damped or tightly
coupled to the platter surface, eas-
ily transmits energy produced at the
stylus/groove interface. That’s why
we have record mats, clamps, and
weights— to damp the disc and prevent
it firom vibrating and feeding back to
the stylus unwanted energy. Mats with
raised discs or rings may be useful on
inexpensive turntables, but not for
ones with 60-lb platters.

When an LP is tightly coupled to
the platter, it’s damped. Resting it
atop the L-Ts exserts produces open
spaces that allow the record to vibrate.
Sperhng offers exserts in a variety of
materials, each of which the company
claims produces a slightly different
sound— but why not just tightly couple
record to platter and avoid having to
tune it altogether?

With the stylus on a record and
the platter at rest, a gentle tap on the
record’s label produced a loud, deep
thump. The volume of this thump was

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Fig.l (left): Sperling-Audio L-1
Fig.2 (right): Sperling-Audio L-
(raw frequency yellow, low-pas

turntable, speed stability data.
■1 turntable, speed stability
is filtered frequency green).

reduced when I used the Stillpoints or
Kuzma record weight on the Sper-
ling’s spindle, and even more when I
used a well-damped record mat, such
as Merrill-Scillia’s E.D.M. lead-and-
cork mat (no longer made) on top
of the exserts. No more deep thump.
After auditioning the L-1 with and
without the mat, I left the mat on the
platter for all of my listening— the bot-
tom end sounded faster and nimbler.

With the Lyra Atlas cartridge on the
Kuzma 4Point, immediately obvious
was the L-l’s rock-solid speed stability,
which I later confirmed by measur-
ing it with Dr. Feickert Analogue’s
PlatterSpeed app (fig.l). Low-pass
filtered (fig.2), the results were ±0.5Hz
(absolute) and ±0.01% (relative).

The L-1 produced solid, stable
imaging, clean and precise transient
response, and the dynamic slam and
authority managed by only the best
turntables: free of low-frequency
overhang, but capable of reproducing
any harmonic richness contained in
the groove and none that isn’t. But if
you demand romance from all of your
records, look elsewhere— or add it with
a warm-sounding cartridge or tone-
arm. The L-1 is a ’table you can put a

stethoscope on with a record playing
and hear nothing from the motor or the
grooves. You can tap on its base or arm
mount and also hear nothing.

Listening to the L-1

An evening of piano recordings, both
solo and with jazz combos and orches-
tras, confirmed the L-l’s impressive
speed stabihty and pitch control (as
long as the record had been pressed

concentrically). While the
L-l’s bottom octaves weren’t
quite as extended, generous,
or forceful as the Continuum
CaUburn’s, its bottom-end grip
and rhythmic authority were.
The Sperling’s low-frequency
starting and stopping abilities
were up there with the best
I’ve heard, though I’ve heard
more low-frequency weight
from some other ’tables.

Side 1 of Thelonious Monk’s
The London Collection: Volume
1 (Black Lion/ORG Music
1052) made clear the L-Ts grip
and control, but I listened to all
four sides of this 45rpm reissue
because the Sperling also pro-
duced realistic transients, gener-
ous sustain, and stable decays into very
black backgrounds, all of which helped
produce a three-dimensional image of
a piano floating in space: Monk in my
room, playing for me. The L-1 is one of
the very quietest turntables I’ve heard—
it well hid the mechanical nature of
vinyl playback.

It’s difficult to believe that more
than a decade has passed since Mobile
Fidelity Sound Lab reissued Patricia

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Barber’s Nightclub as two 45rpm LPs
mastered by Paul Stubblebine, but al-
ready it’s been out of print for a while.
Barber’s original label recently reissued
it on two 180gm LPs (Premonition
907631)— three sides at 33 V3, one at
45— this time mastered by Bob Ludwig
and cut to lacquer from the high-res-
olution digital master files by the late
Doug Sax (the original recording, by
Jim Anderson, was digital multitrack).
The Lyra-Kuzma-Sperhng combo
easily laid bare the differences between
the two versions, and the new one is
superior in every way: deeper, better-
textured bass; cleaner piano transients
and vocal sibilants; better focus overall;
and a richer, more intimate Hstening
experience.

The armboard for the Swedish
Analogue Technologies tonearm that I
reviewed in July arrived from Sperling,
and in it went. That took the L-1 to an
even higher level of performance in
terms of retrieval of low-level detail,
resolution of textures, bottom-end
authority, and stability of images and
soundstaging. Only the very best turn-
tables produce this kind of bass control,
combined with the fast recovery and
setthng time required to produce
rhythmic nimbleness.

I wish I had the full array of turnta-
bles at this price point for a shoot-out,
including VPPs Classic Direct Drive.
All I can say is that Sperling’s design
takes high mass to the max, with the
expected benefits of rock-soHd speed
stability and excellent isolation but
without paying a price in the alleged
disadvantages of high-mass ’tables:
energy storage and reflection that pro-
duce sluggish rhythmic performance.
Far from it. The Sperling L-1 rocks.

Sperling's TA-1 tonearm swings

Once I’d gotten a handle on the Sper-
ling L-1 with the two familiar tone-
arms, it was time to set up Sperling’s
unusual TA-1 arm (patent pending),
designed by Robert Fuchs in coopera-
tion with Sperling- Audio. The TA-1
costs $9750 with 10" or 12" armtube;
additional armtubes of either length
cost $2975.

The TA-1 is an unusual, hanging-
unipivot design: The arm is suspended
from a single metal point atop an arm-
tube of wood and metal that’s attracted
to the dimpled magnetic bottom of a
massive chromed screw threaded into
an even more massive chromed base.

A similar threaded arrangement, but
from below, is adjusted via magnetic

attraction— there’s no physical contact
between the arm and base— to damp
and to some degree control the usual
single-point wobble. A small threaded
rod behind the pivot point, with
weights on each end, adjusts azimuth.

The vertical tracking force (VTF) is
coarsely set with a underhung counter-
weight that slides along the part of the
armtube that extends behind the pivot.
Fine adjustment of VTF is via another
threaded rod with weight, this one
extending from the counterweight’s
rear. None of these threaded weights
can be locked in place, and all are eas-
ily rotated.

The headshell connects at a single
point, with variable offset angle. The
cartridge is first attached to a slotted
plate with integral finger hff. This
plate, which can be made of one of a
variety of materials (brass, aluminum,
panzerwood, etc.), is secured to the
flattened end of the wooden armtube
by a single mounting bolt that requires
considerable torque to tighten.

The cartridge clips and RCA plugs
are connected by single runs of wire
for which Sperling provides no form
of strain relief. It’s up to you to prevent
strain and cable breakage, and to
produce a loop adequate to keep the
wire from interfering with the arm’s
free movement as the wire exits the
arm’s bottom readjust in front of the
magnetic bearing. I feel this part of the
TA-Ts design is incomplete and inad-
equate, especially considering the cost.

Setting cartridge overhang could
be a real pain, because locking the
cartridge carrier plate into the armtube
holder blocks access to the cartridge
screw heads. So after you’ve deter-
mined that your overhang is incor-
rect— which, at first, it inevitably will
be— you have to loosen the single-point
mount, remove the plate, readjust
overhang, reattach the plate, and check
again, removing and reattaching each
time as you adjust overhang and then
offset angle.

Once that’s complete, you adjust
VTF, vertical tracking angle (VTA),
and stylus rake angle (SRA)— the
latter two by adjusting the mounting
base height— azimuth, and, finally,
the amount of magnetic attraction
anti-wobble damping; after which
you must recheck VTF, which will
have been affected by the damping
magnet. The TA-1 has no antiskating
mechanism, which means the stylus
will ride the groove’s inner wall as it
nears the lead-out groove. The offset

angle makes that a 100% certainty,
though the 12" version will skate less
because its offset angle is smaller. The
advantage of this system is that you
can pre-mount a variety of cartridges
on armtubes and easily swap them out
(though each time, you’ll have to deal
with the lack of strain relief and care-
fully reroute the wire). Sperling offers
a variety of armtube woods for further
tuning, and a 12" armtube well as the
standard 10" one. Because of Sperling’s
unique mounting-plate system, even
swapping a 10" for a 12" arm should
take only a few minutes.

Once I got the hang of it, setting
up the Sperling arm wasn’t all that
difficult, but it was harder than with
many arms— and setting VTA and SRA
weren’t exactly user-friendly or repeat-
able. I’m also less than enthused by the
three unsecured threaded weights: one
at the back of the counterweight, two
on the azimuth adjustment bar. Unse-
cured, they could be prone to resonate.

More problematic is the lack of an
arm lock. Continuum’s Cobra arm
doesn’t have one either, but that arm
gets “blocking” from the plinth. The
Sperling TA-1 hangs in empty space,
dangerously exposed and all too easy to
bump into. The 12" armtube only ex-
acerbates the problem, as does the fact
that the L-1 turntable’s design thrusts
the platter and arm so far forward
toward the user.

TA-1 sound

Despite my solid skepticism about its
design, the TA-1 tracked very well, ac-
cording to Image Hifi’s Vinyl Essentials:
The Ultimate Pickup Test Record (LP,
Image Hifi LP003). Of course, this is
as much, if not more, a function of the
cartridge as of the tonearm, but it takes
two to tango, and the TA-1 proved
to be a good tracker, though I didn’t
experiment with warped records.

A friend believes that I like Kuzma’s
4Point arm because I’m a reviewer
and want a more “analytical” sound.
That’s true. But an analytical sound
is also what I’ll want when I retire. I
don’t want an arm to “sound” at all. I
want it to not sound, and to leave any
sounding to the cartridge. The less an
arm sounds, the more true detail it
will reveal— at the very least, the more
it will reveal the character of the trans-
ducer connected to it. The fact that
not everyone feels that way is why we
have tonearms that can be tuned.

I used a variety of cartridges in the
TA-1, including the Fuuga moving-coil

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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($8950; review next time), whose lack
of a stylus guard made it double-fun
to install, adjust, and leave hanging
exposed on the TA-1. There was no
doubt that the TA-1 had a “sound”—
something that Sperling tacitly
acknowledges by offering the ability to
tune the arm with choices of cartridge-
carrier and armtube materials. That
sound was pleasing and intoxicating—
a low-Q, low-amphtude character that
subtly accentuated the lower midbass,
adding a pleasing warmth to male
voices and double basses without at
all mucking things up and becoming
obtrusive. In my opinion, it was what
importer Audio Arts characterized as
the TA-Ts “magic.”

I’m in the midst of reviewing a new
boxed set, Roxy Music’s The Complete
Studio Albums (8 LPs, Virgin EGBSX
1). “Sunset,” the last track on Stranded,
features piano and a double bass played
by Chris Laurence. This album’s many
wonderful details have slowly revealed
themselves over the 40 years (!) I’ve
been playing it. Regardless of car-
tridge, the TA-1 accentuated the bass’s
resonant body but shortchanged the
string textures when Laurence bows it.
It did likewise with the piano, soften-

ing transient attacks and accentuating
the soundboard. My brain rode the
gliding warmth, which also magnified
the image size. When this is done as
unobtrusively as the TA-1 managed it,
the results are indeed “magical”— and
intoxicating. When I switched to the
SAT tonearm, attacks tightened, and
there was even more bottom-end
weight in a more compacted space.

The plucked bass notes stood out
more, as did the percussion. The feel-
ing of physical space between instru-
ments intensified, along with the mix’s
three-dimensionality.

Not everyone cares about such
things. There are even those who
claim that these sorts of imaging,
space, and three-dimensionality are
artifacts of the recording and playback
processes, and are not part of the expe-
rience of hearing live music. For them,
there are arms like the TA-1, which
produce “magic” and make a most
pleasing sound. Inept wooden arms
just sound warm, soggy, and lifeless.
Inept metal arms sound bright, hard,
and amusical.

Conclusions

Were I to buy a Sperling-Audio L-1

turntable. I’d surely also opt for a
TA-1 tonearm to install on one wing.

I ultimately concluded that, despite
its high-mass platter and plinth, the
sound of the L-1 was somewhat stingy
in the very area where the TA-1 was
generous. You could always install an
“analytical” arm on the L-l’s other
wing— even one temporarily borrowed
from a friend— and check out those
“recording artifacts.” You might like
them— or you might not! ■

Michael Fremer (fremer@analogplanet.
com) is the editor of AnalogPlanet.com, a
website devoted to all things analogical.

CONTACTS

Sperling-Audio

Medientechnik Sperling
Blumenstrasse 10
59514 Welver, Germany
Tel: (49) 2921-3509390
Web: www.sperling-audio.de
US distributor Audio Arts
210 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY. 10010
Tel: (212)260-2939
Web: www.audioarts.co

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IN SEARCH OF THE EXCEPTIONAL

Round Trip

D uring our second trip
to the UK, my wife
and I drove from
Heathrow Airport
to Swindon, to visit an older
couple we’d met on our first
trip. We arrived around noon,
and Vera and Ross made us a
nice lunch, which we enjoyed
while looking at scrapbooks
fiUed with family photos and
well-worn newspaper clippings.

Vera asked where we intended
to spend the night, and I said that our next stop was York.

Our friends were horrified. “That’s hours from here: You
can’t do it in just one afternoon!” (Our UK road atlas sug-
gested we could make the drive in about four hours; it took
slightly longer, only because I felt compelled to stop along
the way to photograph a magpie, as I’d never before seen
one.) We assured our hosts that, as Americans, we were used
to driving hundreds of miles in a day, even for routine trips.
Nevertheless, Vera and Ross insisted on packing a meal— cu-
cumber sandwiches with salad cream, some nice cookies with
jam filling, a container of orange soft drink— and extracting
from us a promise that we would stop and rest along the way.

Vera and Ross, two of the sweetest people I’ve known,
passed away long ago, but I think of them every time I set
about driving any distance greater than 100 miles. I pack a
meal, whether or not I think I’ll want one— I almost always
do— and I make sure to pause every few hours to rest my
eyes and stretch my legs.

So it was on April 23, when I set the controls for the heart
of Peekskill, New York, intent on visiting the headquarters
of The Soundsmith: a manufacturer of electronics and loud-
speakers that also happens to be one of only two makers of
high-fidelity phono cartridges in all of North America (the
other being Grade Labs).' Soundsmith is owned and oper-
ated by Peter Ledermarm, a self-taught engineer whose
love affair with audio began when, at the age of three, he
assembled a crystal-radio kit his father had given him. By
the time he’d entered his teens, Ledermann was salvaging
and repairing all mamier of electronics— radios, tape decks,
even television sets— but it was the acoustic phonograph for
which he felt a special affinity: “I understood Edison’s elegant
invention at a tender age,” he says. “It matched the imped-
ance of the groove to the impedance of the air. I got it!”

After a few semesters of college in the late 1960s, Leder-
mami began his professional career in retail, doing repair
work for Audio Experts, a shop in White Plains, New York.
After that, he worked at RAM Audio in Danbury, Connecti-
cut, alongside chief designer Richard Majestic— with whom
he devised, among other things, a loudspeaker feedback
system that used a transformer to derive an error signal. (I
always perk up when I hear the word transformer) Then, in

Clockwise from above: The

Nautilus ($2250), whose
nameplate is made from
natural shell, is among
Soundsmith's new series of
medium-output moving-iron
cartridges; a low-output
version, the Paua, is also
available; technician Joe
Davis-Logan assembles a
Soundsmith cartridge;
where do ebony cartridge
bodies come from? They
come from a CNC
machinist, who supplies
clamshell-like halves in a
manner reminiscent of
model-car kits.

1976, Ledermann undertook his highest-profile audio job
yet: director of engineering at Bozak, Inc. Once there, he
was assigned to reengineer Bozak’s entire line of loudspeak-
ers and mixing decks— after which he designed a new minia-
ture loudspeaker, the MB-80, by transforming Rudy Bozak’s
well-known 6" aluminum cone into a full-range driver.

In 1979, Bozak sold the company that bore his name, and
Ledermann stmek out on his own. He supported himself
with repair work for a year, then began an 11-year stint at an
IBM engineering think tank nestled away in the company’s
TJ. Watson Research Center, in Yorktown Heights, New
York. Despite his lack of formal training in engineering,
Ledermann says, he “became known in the company as
someone who was resourceful and inventive. I paid my dues
through intuition. I paid my dues by being as curious as I
could be.”

But Ledermann’s interest in designing and making audio
products never waned. Indeed, he says, he created Sound-
smith all the way back in 1970— as an audio-industry “men-
toring company”— and kept it going throughout his other
professional engagements. Then, in 1990, Ledermann left
IBM and began to devote aU of his energies to Soundsmith.

1 Shure Brothers phono cartridges are now made in Juarez, Mexico. Stanton
Magnetics, now owned by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennes-
see, recently ceased production of all cartridge models and all but one of their
replacement styh.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

( ( ( LISTENING

The needle wags

Peekskill is a decent enough small city,
and Soundsmith is located in a decent
enough industrial park, bordered on
one side by the Hudson River and by
historic US Route 9— aka Broadway in
both upper Manhattan and Saratoga
Springs— on the other. While navigat-
ing the latter, I scarcely missed being
involved in an accident between the
Toyota Prius directly in front of me
and a pickup tmck whose driver
seemed oblivious to the hazards of
sudden lane changes in busy traffic
circles. Good thing I was well rested.

Less harrowing was my elevator ride
to the fourth floor of 8 John Walsh
Boulevard, where Soundsmith occu-
pies two adjacent spaces totaling some
8000 square feet. The door to the first
and larger of those spaces opened onto
a small reception area decorated with
photographs, posters, awards, and a
silent display of mint-condition vintage
hi-fi gear. (MasterCard and Visa signs
suggested that consumers are, indeed,
welcome.) From there, Peter Leder-
mami led me to a large, well-lit room,
where two of his 13 employees were
engaged in the commercial activity for
which Soundsmith is now well known:

the manufacture of a line of phono
cartridges, the vast majority being of
the moving-iron (MI) persuasion.

On the subject of his transducer
technology of choice, Ledermann
is passionate and articulate. While
acknowledging that there exist many
good cartridges of the moving-coil
(MC) and moving-magnet (MM)
varieties— in the former, tiny bobbins
of fine wire are stylus-shook within the
flux fields of stationary magnets, while
the latter employs stationary bobbins
of wire, in whose face the needle wags
one or two tiny magnets— Ledermann
prefers the MI, in which magnets and
coils stay put and the stylus coaxes into
motion a very small piece of magneti-
cally permeable metal, which displaces
the flux lines of the former and
induces signal in the latter. In person,
as on his website, Ledermann points
to numerous advantages of his third-
stream technology, most pertaining to
a single fact: In an MI cartridge, the
moving mass tends to be lower than in
other cartridge types. And, as Leder-
mami says, “I am an absolute believer
that moving mass is the enemy of
cartridge performance.”

The moving element in Sound-

smith’s MI design is appropriately tiny,
but that isn’t its only claim to fame.
Inspired by a design created in the
1960s by Bang & Olufsen— replace-
ments for whose cartridges and styli
are now manufactured, under license,
by Soundsmith— Ledermann chose for
his moving element a cross shape, and
aligned it so that, when the cartridge
is subject to the prescribed downforce
and placed on a record, the cross hov-
ers perfectly equidistant from four
stationary coils and magnets. When
stylus deflection moves one leg of the
cross away from one set of magnetic
flux lines, the position of the opposite
leg of the cross is moved closer to its
own electromagnetic sweet spot— and
so the Soundsmith design avoids the
dynamic compression that would occur
if a single element were moved too far
from the flux-line epicenter. It is, in a
real sense, a push-pull cartridge.

Thus my amazement to see, in real
Hfe, how tiny are those crosses and
coils, and how much painstaking care
is required of the technicians who align
and assemble them— and who anneal
the magnetically permeable elements,
and weld in place the thinner-than-hair
wires, and perform all manner of other

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LISTENING ) ) ]

seemingly impossible tasks. Surely, the
clinical lab at our local hospital has at
its disposal fewer microscopes than
does Soundsmith, where I counted at
least eight in the cartridge-assembly
area, and a couple more in Leder-
mann’s office alone. All Soundsmith
cartridges are made by hand, and most
are the products of a few different
technicians; the top-of-the-line models
are built solely by Ledermann.

Pecos Pete

Distinctions among Soundsmith’s
various MI models fall into a few dif-
ferent categories. The company makes
cartridges that produce low, medium,
and high output voltages, with suspen-
sions that exhibit low, medium, and
high levels of compliance. Cantilever
choices include aluminum alloy, tele-
scoping aluminum alloy, boron, ruby,
and specially treated cactus spine. (The
last is no joke: Not long ago, Peter
Ledermann discovered that, carefully
trimmed to the right shape, the once-
popular stylus material makes a supe-
rior cantilever that offers a virtually
perfect combination of self-damping
properties and stiffness.) Stylus shapes
include titanium-bonded elliptical.

Top: The Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge, with
stylus removed. Above: The lion in early spring:
Peter Ledermann at lunch.

nude elliptical, contact line, and opti-
mized contact line. And, of course, the
bodies of Soundsmith cartridges are
made of different materials, including
acrylic, composite (think: kitchen coun-

ters), and various species of wood.

Taking into account the options de-
scribed above, as well as the company’s
unusual naming conventions, there
would seem to be about 30 different
Soundsmith cartridge models— a high
enough number to impart to this per-
fectionist brand the sHghtest whiff of
JC Whitney. The actual total is closer
to 60, given that all of Soundsmith’s
MI models are also available as mono
cartridges. The mono versions are still
push-pull, still four-coil cartridges,
but with coil arrangements that differ,
electrically, from those of their stereo
counterparts. Thus, by sheer numbers
alone, Soundsmith is pretty much
Mono Central. And it’s no coincidence
that Ledermann shares my enthusiasm
for single-channel playback, hailing its
comparative lack of phase distortion
and consequent sonic wholeness and
whomp.

Ledermann’s enthusiasms also
include a healthy sense of thrift:

While it’s true that no Soundsmith
MI cartridge has a user-replaceable
stylus— an unavoidable state of affairs,
given the high level of skill required to
align the teensy iron cross vis-a-vis the
cartridge’s similarly small signal coils—

Dr. Jekyll.

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LISTENING I ) ]

the company guarantees that every
cartridge it seUs can be retipped for
20% of its original price. Repeatedly.

Lower still is the cost of maintain-
ing Ledermann’s top cartridge model,
the Soundsmith Strain Gauge ($8600,^
including the most basic version of its
requisite preamp): Replacement styli
can be swapped out in the field, and
range in price from only $350 to $950.

User-replaceable styli with three-
figure price tags are made possible
because the transduction principle for
which the cartridge is named— at least
two other strain-gauge pickups have
appeared on the market in years past—
is so different from that of most other
phono cartridges. MI, MC, and MM
cartridges aU respond to the bumps in
the groove of a moving record by gen-
erating their own electrical signal. (As
pointed out in the June 2014 “Listen-
ing,” those products are unique among
all source components in that regard.)
But a strain-gauge cartridge responds
to those bumps by modulating a cur-
rent supplied by its parmering preamp,
which it does by means of a tiny
silicon element that varies resistance in
response to physical stylus deflection.
Thus the Soundsmith Strain Gauge can
claim even lower moving mass than
an MI cartridge— and, as a bonus, its
modulated signal requires only minor
amplitude-response correction, and
not the full-blown RIAA equalization
required by most phono pickups.

Ledermann would also have you
know that, because of its incompara-
bly low moving mass and its freedom
from the mechanical compression that
bedevils electromagnetic cartridges, the
Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge is
an incomparably good tracker. Indeed,
he says, the Strain Gauge is kinder
than most cartridges to one’s records,
a claim he illustrated by playing for
me a record that not only had lots of
bass, treble, and sheer juice, but that
exhibited not a single tick or pop.
Except it wasn’t a record— it was a half-
speed-mastered lacquer. While a typi-
cal lacquer can’t be played more than a

few times before audible groove dam-
age sets in, Ledermann said that this
lacquer had been played approximately
150 times— but only with a Soundsmith
Strain Gauge.

The rest of that playback system
seemed similarly impressive— and, with
the exception of the VPI turntable and
Schroeder tonearm, all components
were designed and made by Leder-
mami. The cartridge was the Sound-
smith Strain Gauge Signature Series
SG-810 ($33,900), the partnering
preamp for which also includes line
inputs, manual and remote controls, a
tape loop, and automatic cue-up mut-
ing. Power amplifiers were a bridged
pair of Soundsmith HE-150 zero-feed-
back, 200Wpc MOSFET monoblocks
($43,000 each), and loudspeakers
were the compact (14” tall), two-way
Soundsmith Monarchs ($4000/pair),
mounted on Soundsmith Versa-Stands
($900/pair). The sound lacked the
casual, natural forcefulness I hear
through my Altec horns, and when I
played an LP I’d brought with me—
Country Cooking’s 14 Bluegrass Instru-
mentals (Rounder 006)— I was surprised
to hear a less dry, more echoey sound
than I hear at home. But color, detail,
scale, and width of frequency range
were all very impressive. I may or may
not have been correct in attributing to
the Strain Gauge cartridge the system’s
abundance of sonic detail, but there
was no doubting the little Monarch
speaker’s ability to sound surprisingly
huge, and to play low-frequency tones
I would have thought beyond its reach.

Grace notes

After a bit more listening, Ledermann
and I retreated to a local restaurant
for some lunch and a more relaxed,
far-ranging conversation. We hit upon
all manner of hi-fi and music topics,
during which I became acquainted
with some of Ledermann’s Hkes and
dislikes regarding analog playback in
general. For the sake of both sound
and cartridge longevity, he is an ardent
behever in keeping records clean.

Far left: The faceplate of the Soundsmith SG-
810 preamplifier is machined from cocobolo, a
popular tonewood; the light-colored strip near
the bottom edge is of sapwood, prized by some
luthiers for adding visual contrast to the backs
and sides of instruments. Left: Left behind in the
good hands of Peter Ledermann: my Decca Gray.

and prefers radial-slot, vacuum-dry
cleaning machines such as those from
VPI and Hannl, the latter of which
Soundsmith offers for sale. (Earlier in
the day, when we were about to play
that Country Cooking LP, Ledermann
asked if I’d let him wash the record
beforehand; having recently cleaned it
on the Audiodesksysteme Glass Vinyl
Cleaner, which I prefer, I declined with
thanks.) As for stylus cleaning, Leder-
mann recommends lowering the tip
into a gummy, sticky, putty-like sub-
stance, which is presumed to retain any
and all contaminants, and which can
be reused multiple times. (Although
Ledermann doesn’t specifically endorse
it, the Onzow Zerodust cleaner works
in that manner.)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ledermann
also has much to say about cartridge
alignment— but is refraining from mak-
ing detailed comments on the topic
until such time as he can deliver one
of his next commercial products, the
Soundsmith Cartright. This bundle of
hardware and software, reportedly in
the works for some time, is expected
to carry a price in the high three
figures. For now, suffice it to say that
Ledermami’s geometry of choice is
Baerwald— and take to heart his obser-
vation that “azimuth is a supercritical
alignment, but there is a difference be-
tween generator alignment and stylus
alignment.” That’s not as enigmatic as
it sounds.

But of all the topics that inspire
Ledermami’s passion and industry,
none seems as near to his heart as
his favorite charitable enterprise: the
worldwide abolition of childhood
slavery. To that end, he has created his
own record company, DirectGrace Re-
cords (www.directgrace.org). The label
speciahzes in direct-to-disc record-
ings of acoustic music, recorded and
mastered by Ledermann on a Neu-
mami VMS70 lathe at the Soundsmith
offices; all proceeds go to support such
nonprofit organizations as the African
Network for the Prevention and
Protection Against Child Abuse and

2 Michael Fremer reviewed the Soundsmith Strain
Gauge cartridge in March 2011; see www.stereophile.
com/content/soundsmith-strain-gauge-sg-200-pho-
no-cartridge-system.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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209 N. Victory Blvd., Burbank, California 91502

LISTENING ) ) j

Neglect (www.anppcan.org). Among
the titles presently available are Flower
by the Dry River, by jazz pianist Elio
Villafranca and his ensemble (LP, DG
00106 S), and the eponymous debut
album by singer-songwriter Samuel
Searle Morris (LP, DG 00103 S). You
can buy one or both of them right now
and do something nice for the world
and your ears.

After lunch, we returned to Sound-
smith for a little more listening, and
to drop in to see their cartridge-repair
department— a visit I’d looked forward
to all day. Among some phonophiles,
Soundsmith is best known for its abili-
ty to retip and repair almost any phono
pickup you can name, from Allaerts to
Zyx— and for a price usually consider-
ably lower than that charged by the
original manufacturer. Soundsmith can
do this in one of two ways: The repair
technician— Ledermann himself or the
affable David Moskowitz— can remove
the entire cantilever and replace it with
a brand-new cantilever-stylus assembly,
with various options regarding the
material of the former and the profile
of the latter. Alternatively, the techni-
cian can leave in place the original
cantilever and remove only the stylus
shank— usually by dissolving the ce-
ment that holds it in place— after which
a brand-new diamond can be fitted.
Costing between $350 and $650, the
latter is Soundsmith’s more expensive
option, simply because it’s difficult to
perfectly align— within an opening that
may not have been correctly made in
the first place— a microscopically small
nub of transparent material. By choos-
ing the cantilever-plus-stylus route, the
consumer is on the hook for as little as
$150, with prices in some cases ranging
up to $450.

Even the highest of those prices
seems cheap, and may well coax from
the cynical that great refrain of Ameri-
can salesmanship: Why pay more? The
answer, from some, might be that a
new stylus isn’t enough to fully reset
the odometer on a high-performance
cartridge, which may also require a re-
magnetized magnet, a thorough purg-
ing of magnetically permeable detritus,
retorquing of the tensioning wire,
and, most of all, new suspension parts.
Soundsmith, of course, can do much of
that work themselves, although many
notable cartridge makers do not make
available to other service facilities their
proprietary replacement materials— and
so they have the advantage. (Just as
Ledermami believes the materials he

There was no
doubting the little
Monarch speaker's
ability to sound
surprisingly huge.

chooses for his cartridges are the best,
so may other cartridge makers suggest
that they, too, chose for their products
the best possible materials in the first
place.) But no matter how you look
at it, spending $650 or less for a fresh
start with a brand-new stylus, espe-
cially on a megabuck cartridge, has
tremendous appeal.

For reasons almost entirely selfish,

I asked: “Can you replace the ellipti-
cal stylus of a 12 -year-old Japanese
cartridge with a spherical tip?”

I received from Ledermarm the
answer I expected: “Why would you
want to do that?” When I pressed him,
and explained that I simply prefer the
unfussy sound of a spherical tip, he said
he would be happy to make the change
whenever I wish. Setting my selfish-
ness throttle to full steam ahead, I then
offered for his inspection a very old
Decca Gray that someone had given
me just a few days before. Ledermann
kindly put it under his ’scope and, in
short order, discovered two things: The
Gray’s own spherical tip showed no
wear whatsoever, and one of its coil
wires had come unsoldered, rendering
the thing useless; the latter more or
less explained the former. In any event,
Ledermann offered to try to fix it.

And so, when I left Soundsmith that
day, I left a little something behind.
Ledermami saw me to my car, and
we chatted a few minutes more. Then
we shook hands, and I set my Garmin
for the trip home. It was afternoon
msh hour, and before I reached the
Newburg-Beacon Bridge, it had begun
to lightly snow— on April 23. It had
been a long winter. Now, I wondered
if that would ever change. ■

Art Dudley (art.dudley@sorc.com) spins
his vinyl in bucolic upstate New York.

CONTACTS

The Soundsmith

8 John Walsh Boulevard, Suite 417

Peekskill, NY 10566

Tel: (800) 942-8009, (914) 739-2885

Fax: (914) 739-5204

Web: www.sound-smith.com

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THE FIFTH BY JOHN MARKS

ELEMENT

Wilson Benesch Revisited

THIS issue: Wilson Benesch's
remarkable entry-level loudspeaker,
and music not to be missed!

C hris Huston is as soft-spoken and unassuming a
chap as you would ever hope to meet, a real gen-
tleman of the old school. He also has an amazing
backstory. He and John Lennon were close friends
at Liverpool’s College of Art, and later had “dueling bands”
that played at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. Huston’s band was
the Undertakers, with lead singer Jackie Lomax. Like the
Beatles, the Undertakers spent time playing gigs in scrappy
clubs near the Hamburg docks. However, Huston is not just
an asterisk in the music encyclopedias. He co-engineered
Led Zeppelin’s II, earned a Grammy for producing War’s
The World Is a Ghetto, and has produced and/or engineered
more than 80 gold and platinum records.

Huston and I were discussing loudspeaker design when
he asked a question that brought me up short: “Should a
loudspeaker have a personaKty?”

It took me a moment to collect my thoughts— I had never
thought of things in quite those terms. I quickly ransacked
my memory for peak audio experiences, then said, “Yes.”

Huston’s reply is one of the most concise and insight-
ful bits of audio wisdom I have ever heard: “A loudspeaker
without a personality is like a song without a hook.”

But it sounds as counterintuitive as it is bound to be con-
troversial. Shouldn’t we want speakers to sound as neutral as
possible— that is, to have no personality? Shouldn’t a speaker
be the acoustical equivalent of “a straight wire with gain”? In
theory, yes.

In practice, however, the laws of physics seem to dictate
that, in designing a loudspeaker, to get this, you have to give
up that. You squeeze it here, it bulges there. Pick your poison.
In speaker design, there’s always something you give up-
even if it’s only affordability. We use speakers not in anechoic
chambers but in actual rooms of actual houses, to hsten not
to sinewave test tones, but to imperfect recordings of music.

At some point, speaker designers must nail their colors to
the mast and let the world hear what they think a speaker
should sound Hke. And that’s what that speaker’s personahty is.

But do loudspeakers need personahties? I think Chris
Huston was right. Too often, the price you pay for neutrality
is subhminal disconnection from the music.

For many years. I’ve been a fan of the loudspeakers
made by the British audio company Wilson Benesch. Their
speakers definitely have their own personahty. I first reviewed
a Wilson Benesch loudspeaker while a columnist and re-
viewer for The Absolute Sound, and how that came about was
amusing. As WB’s then US importer was packing up his ex-
hibit at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show, by mistake he
put labels with my address on them on the boxes containing
the show samples of WB’s revolutionary A.C.T. One, the
first loudspeaker to have a curved carbon-fiber enclosure,
a sloping top, and a baffle of cut steel. And a very nice late
Christmas present they were, too.

My comments on the A.C.T. One ran in the August/
September 1999 TAS, issue 119. 1 praised it to the skies;

f " * even Harry Pearson himself had to

from a lO-liter cabinet i • i i i i i* i i

has JM soundly admit that, had he not listened to the

impressed. A.C.T. One (which at the time cost ca

$10, 000/pair), he would not have been
able to “put his finger on” what was not quite right in the
midrange of a ca $80,000/pair speaker prominently featured
in that issue.

Of all the audio equipment I’ve heard in my three
decades as an audio writer, the A.C.T. One and darTZeel’s
NHB-108 stereo power amplifier tie for first place in terms
of my regret at not having bought them. Enlightened Audio
Designs’ Ultradisc 2000 CD player is in second place. It’s
telHng that A.C.T. Ones rarely seem to come up for sale on
eBay or Audiogon.

In 2000 I moved from TAS to Stereophile, and in Sep-
tember 2004' I wrote of the A.C.T. One’s successor, the
ACT, “The hallmarks of Wilson Benesch’s ‘house sound’
are extremely low distortion, seamless coherence, unfussy
easefulness, rounded Hquidity of tone, articulate dynam-
ics, and seductively natural imaging and soundstaging.” For
what many might perceive as American tastes, I also had to
note that WB’s house sound favored elegant bass quahty
over bass quantity, and further, that the combination of high
tech and high style meant that WB speakers, tier by tier, cost
more than those of their built-in-the-US competition.

So, despite a small but committed fan base, a sprinkling of

1 See www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/904fifth/index.htm.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

( ( ( THE FIFTH ELEMENT

committed dealers, lots of respect, and
some great reviews, Wilson Benesch’s
presence in the US market has not
been uninterrupted. In 2014, WB
reconnected with Steve Daniels of The
Sound Organisation, importers of Rega
Research and other brands. Together,
they’ve been rebuilding WB’s US
dealer base, starting with the Series II
edition of WB’s entry-level speaker,
the petite, rectilinear, non-carbon-fiber
Square One.

I had a wide-ranging conversa-
tion with Wilson Benesch’s owners,
Christina and Craig Milnes, who
believe that their company offers to
audio-enthusiast music lovers a unique
combination of values and benefits.
First, their speakers embody 25 years
of fundamental research in materials
science, much of it funded by Her
Majesty’s Government. They have
in-house control over the complete
manufacturing process. Then there’s
WB’s design aesthetic, revolutionary
20 years ago but since picked up by
others. Finally, they offer a sound qual-
ity they feel is different from that of
any other speaker company. “Voicing a
loudspeaker is a very personal thing, I
think,” Craig told me.

Craig Milnes stated that the Square
One is the least-expensive speaker WB
can make without deviating from their
technical, aesthetic, and sound-design
heritage— that it is, in fact, at $3800/
pair, something of a loss leader. That
said, he thinks that the Square Five
($ 17,000/pair) is their highest- value
product, in that all of its technology is
borrowed from WB’s flagship model,
the Cardinal ($115,000/pair). The
Cardinal has sold even better than was
hoped, especially in Germany, about
which the Milneses pronounce them-
selves “more than happy.” Christina
noted that the entry-level Square One
boasts the Cardinal’s quality of veneer,
from the same supplier.

Wilson Benesch Series II Square One

Wilson Benesch’s Series II Square
One is a stand-mounted, dynamic
loudspeaker measuring 12.8" high by
8" wide by 11.2" deep and having an
internal volume of 10 liters. A vented
two-way design, it has a 1" soft-dome
tweeter, a 7" mid/woofer, and, on the
rear panel, a 7" Assisted Bass Radiator
(ABR or passive radiator). Unusually,
both ports vent through the bottom
panel. Therefore, the speaker enclo-

sure has, at the four corners of its base,
metal standoffs. These can be covered
with small, compliant, self-adhesive
hemispheres (supplied) for installation
on a bookshelf or sideboard. Alterna-
tively, the standoffs accept the supplied
hefty machine screws, installed upward
through holes in the dedicated, all-
metal stands. The stands cost $1395/pair,
for a total system cost of $5195/pair.

Securely locking a loudspeaker to its
stand is a concept I heartily endorse.
One doesn’t want toddlers to puU
speakers down on top of themselves
by their cables. Nor does one want an
adult guest to inadvertently hip-check
one’s speaker onto the floor.

In addition to the unusual combina-
tion of bottom ports and ABR, the
Square One’s design includes “critical
mass damping pads.” A Square One
on its own weighs 22 lbs; each hefty
spiked stand (available only in black,
front spikes permanently attached)
weighs 26 lbs. The standard finishes
are Natural Cherry Stain; or, in Gloss,
Black, White, Birds Eye, Red Birds
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THE FIFTH ELEMENT ) ) ]

which looked almost black, except in
full daylight.

The fit and finish were second to
none. The Square Ones came with the
most purposeful steel-framed grilles I
have ever beheld. I admired them once,
then left them in the shipping cartons.
The four speaker-cable terminals are
machined in-house from rhodium-plat-
ed copper alloy; high-quality jumper
wires are supplied for single wiring.

Wilson Benesch’s specifications for
the Square One include: a sensitivity of
87dB/2.83V/m, on axis; impedances of
6 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum; a
crossover frequency of 5kHz (first-
order bass rolloff, second-order tweeter
crossover); a frequency range of 45Hz-
24kHz; and a power-handling capacity
of “200W, peak undipped program.”

I checked the bass-extension claim
by listening to the “Full Glide Tone”
from Ayre Acoustics’ Irrational, But
Efficacious! System Enhancement Disc, Ver-
sion 1 .2. At the moment in the tone’s
sweep upward— it starts at 4Hz— when
I believed that the Square One’s
woofer was actually producing “tone”
and not just fecklessly flopping, I hit
Pause on the Parasound Halo CD Ts
remote control, noted the elapsed time

on the CD Ts display, and, using the
Amadeus Pro II app, opened the “Full
Glide Tone” digital-audio .wav file, and
captured a small sample that included
about one second to either side of the
indicated time. From the “Analyze”
pull-down menu I selected “Spec-
trum.” The spectrum I obtained was
centered on 44.1Hz. Keeping in mind
unavoidable experimental error, I find
WB’s claim of 45Hz credible— and
very impressive for a speaker with an
internal volume of only 10 liters.

Listening

For all of my listening, the source (and
volume control) was Bricasti’s Ml
DAC, fed either by Parasound’s bomb-
proof Halo CD 1 as a transport, or
from my iMac running Audirvana Plus.
Cardas Clear balanced or single-ended
interconnects linked the Bricasti Ml
to one of the three power amplifiers I
used: Channel Islands Audio’s E'200S
(200Wpc), and Luxman’s M-600A
(SOWpc, class-A only) and M-700u
(120Wpc, class-A/B).

My review samples of the Square
Ones had come from a dealer’s show-
room floor. Even so, they required
a certain amount of break-in (or

re-break-in). The rear-mounted ABR’s
inverted surround was very stiff. Even
very loud music with significant bass
content didn’t cause large excursions.

Wilson Benesch does not state a
minimum recommended amplifier
power, but, with its ABR and claimed
87dB sensitivity— and its characteristic
WB trait of favoring bass quality over
bass quantity (or extension)— I’d say
that 50W would be the bare mini-
mum, and that the amplifier should
have great current drive and exemplary
damping factor. Doubtless a safer
bet would be lOOWpc. Luxman’s
M-600A (30Wpc) just could not
dehver the goods to the Square Ones.
But when I switched to the slightly
more “modern”-sounding M-700u
(l20Wpc; see my June 2015 column),
what I heard sounded almost like an-
other fiill octave of bass extension.

In among all that, I experimented
with positioning. I moved the Square
Ones closer to the front wall than I’ve
placed most speakers in my room,
which firmed up the bass without
causing any bothersome side effects.

I ended up with the Square Ones
completely toed in to the listening
position, and with the center of each

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rear panel 12" from the wall behind it.
Placing each speaker a third of the way
along the front wall made the distance
between the centers of the front panels
about 5.5', and resulted in the speakers
and Hstening position describing a
slightly elongated isosceles triangle.

The opening movement, Trauer-
marsch, of Mahler’s Symphony 5, from
Eliahu Inbal’s underrated (I think)
recording with the Frankfurt RSO
(CD, Denon C079737), had star-
thng dynamics and amazing depth of
soundstage, the brasses and percussion
sounding surprisingly powerful for a
speaker of so small a footprint. That
said, while there was a suggestion of
bass impact, there wasn’t much slam.
(One workaround would be to partner
the Square Ones with Wilson Ben-
esch’s Toms, a passive subwoofer with
vertically firing, 18" driver: $6730.)

Standard audio reference recordings
of female voices— Jennifer Warnes
on her Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of
Leonard Cohen (CD, Attic ACD-1227),
and Margo Timmins in “To Love Is
to Bury,” from the Cowboy Junkies’

The Trinity Session (CD, RCA/Classic
RTHCD8568)— were as plangent and
as emotionally engaging as I have ever
heard them, with, again, remarkable
depth of soundstage.

A rare find indeed is an almost-
unknown French- Stviss recording of
a Tommy Flanagan New York City
studio date from 1993, Lady Be Good . . .
For Ella, with bassist Peter Washington

JAZZ REDISCOVERY OF THE DECADE

Purely by chance, I came across a used
CD: Jo + Jazz, featuringjo Stafford
(1917-2008), a once-famous singer
whose career began in the 1930s, and
whose unstinting service entertain-
ing military personnel during WWII
earned her the nickname “GI Jo.”

Stafford and her husband, the
arranger Paul Weston (1912-1996),
later became famous for their comedy
act Jonathan and Darlene,^ in which
Weston played the piano as though he
had two right hands, and Stafford, a
trained singer, sang perfectly off-pitch.
When I glanced at the recording date
for Jo + Jazz, I was surprised. I had
thought that, by 1960, Stafford was no
longer making serious records.

A closer examination left me fairly
agog. The Hst of assisting musicians is
stellar: Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges,
Ray Nance, Jimmy Rowles, Mel
Lewis, Conte Candoli, Russ Freeman,

and dmmmer Lewis Nash (CD, Gro-
ovin’ High 521 617-2). Flanagan spent
many years as Fitzgerald’s music direc-
tor, and all of the songs here are associ-
ated with or at least reminiscent of her.
For what it is— a multimiked studio
recording with an arbitrary stereo
perspective— it’s a fabulous recording.
The playing is soulful, in places elegiac.
It took me a while to figure out that
Flanagan’s slow solo-piano intro to the
first of two iterations of “Oh, Lady Be
Good!” fit the words to the nursery
rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” A
message in a bottle, perhaps?

The Square Ones were the perfect
match for this music. Their soundstag-
ing abihties made the studio’s sound
larger and freer, while the music’s bass
demands didn’t outmn the speakers’
bass capabilities. The clarity of the
sound of Flanagan’s piano was exem-
plary. While the Square One didn’t
sound “analytical,” it also didn’t sound
like a traditional British BBC-heritage
loudspeaker, by which I mean a
tailored frequency response with mid-
range warmth on almost all recordings.

Back to Mahler, this time Des Knahen
Wunderhorn, for mezzo-soprano Sarah
Connolly’s luminous, nearly heart-
breaking “Urhcht” in the recording
by Phihppe Herreweghe directing the
Orchestre des Champs-Elysees (CD,
Harmonia Mundi 901920). Yes, the
Historically Informed Performance
Practices crowd has caught up with
Mahler (though despite the claim of

period instraments, A is here 440Hz,
not 432Hz). Fear not— it’s a stupendous
performance. It sounded stunning
through the Square Ones, in part
because this is the Gustav Mahler of
dimly remembered Lutheran chorales
played by brass choirs, without any
huge side-dmm thwacks. Given the
Square One’s rather high crossover fre-
quency of 5kHz— an octave higher than
the norm— I kept hstening for some
discontinuity between midrange and
treble, but heard none. In my estimate,
Connolly’s performance is as treasur-
able as Anne Sophie von Otter’s. And
what a way to end a listening session!

The Square Ones are a premium-
priced product, to be sure. However,
they have much of the same technol-
ogy and the same build quality as Wil-
son Benesch’s more expensive models,
and provide a smaller-scaled version
of \^’s house sound: “extremely low
distortion, seamless coherence, unfussy
easefulness, rounded liquidity of tone,
articulate dynamics, and seductively
natural imaging and soundstaging.”

The price tier of ca $5000/pair (includ-
ing stands) is crowded and competitive,
but the Square One is a standout per-
former that I think absolutely deserves
a very high Class B (Restricted LF)
rating in our “Recommended Com-
ponents.” It very well may be over the
hne into Class A (Restricted Extreme
LF) . . . but John Atkinson will have to
decide that after I have sent them to
him for measurement.

Don Fagerquist.

Orchestrations were
by Johnny Mandel,
from the time before
he struck pay dirt
with “The Shadow
of Your Smile.” Jo -I-
Jazz was recorded
just 16 months after
Kind of Blue, in the
same studio, with the
same producer— Ir-
ving Townsend— and
(I must assume)
the same equipment and engineers.
Remarkable! Why had I never heard
of this?

The CD I discovered was from a
label I’d never heard of, Corinthian
Records, but Jo + Jazz was originally
released by Columbia, and therein lies
a tale. Despite some truly arrest-
ing singing, and great arrangements
played by a phalanx of legendary

musicians, Jo H- Jazz
seems to have been
a flop. Stafford and
Weston report-
edly thought that
Columbia failed to
promote the record
adequately. That
might have been
the case. But, in
the label’s defense,
tasteful jazz singing
was going begging
in 1960, the year of
“Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini,” with top
chart positions going to Elvis Presley,

2 Paul Weston’s stage name, Jonathan Edwards,
was perhaps the ultimate musicians’ inside joke.
Ubersuccessful lounge pianist Louis Jacob Weertz
took as his stage name Roger Wilhams, the name of
the 17th-century Baptist theologian of Rhode Island.
Therefore, at the suggestion of Columbia Records
producer George Avakian, Weston took the name of
Jonathan Edwards, an 18th-century Calvinist from
Connecticut. (The 1970s singer-songwriter Jonathan
Edwards apparently came by his name honestly.)

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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THE FIFTH ELEMENT ) ) |

Chubby Checker, the Drifters, and
a strong showing for Ferrante &
Teicher’s “Theme from Exodus.”

Weston and Stafford eventually
acquired the rights to the master tapes,
and reissued the LP. (The Corinthian
reissue and original Columbia LPs are
often on eBay.) Their son Tim Weston,
working with engineer Roger Nichols
(1944-2011),^ of Steely Dan fame, later
remastered the project for re-reissue,
and a darn good-sounding CD it is
(Corinthian COR 108CD). The two
standout cuts are “The Folks Who
Live on the Hill” (Stafford’s is now
my go-to version) and “Imagination,”
but the entire album is a treat: a pre-

cious moment in time forever frozen
in amber. I played some tracks for
speaker designer Winslow Burhoe and
his wife, and Burhoe remarked on the
recording’s excellent dynamic range.
Yes indeed.

The remastered CD is available
from Amazon.com for $12.99; the
price includes a free MP3 rip. What’s
not to love?

3 Roger Nichols had a fascinating career. In college,
he studied nuclear physics. Later, his day job was in
a nuclear power station, but he moonlighted in a
studio he and a fiiend had built in a four-car garage.
They took whatever work was available, includ-
ing radio commercials. Nichols may have been the
first to record Karen Carpenter, whom he used for
voiceovers.

LOLLIPOPS BEYOND DELIGHTFUL

Composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-
1936) was also a pianist and a string
player. He played viola in the orchestra
of Russian Impe-
rial Theater in Saint
Petersburg during
the seasons of Italian
opera there, and later
played first violin in
an Italian string quar-
tet. During Respighi’s
formative years, the
musical life of Italy
was “all opera, all the
time.” However, dur-
ing Respighi’s sojourn
in Russia, he became a composition
student of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s,
from whom he learned the power of
orchestration.

Respighi’s fame rests on his Roman
Trilogy of orchestral sketches: Pines
of Rome, Fountains of Rome, and Feste
Romane, recordings of all of which have
been longtime audiophile favorites.

I saw a favorable notice of a recent
Respighi recording by an orchestra
unfamiUar to me, Belgium’s Liege
Royal Philharmonic, and a conductor
I’d barely heard of, John Neschling,
who turns out to be a grandnephew
of Arnold Schoenberg’s. The music,
too, was less than familiar; I’d never
owned a recording of either Impressioni
Brasiliane or La Boutique fantasque, the
latter Respighi’s ballet score based on
Rossini tunes. So I requested a review
copy (SACD/CD, BIS 2050).

Well, SACD fans, it’s again time
to vote with your wallets. The sound
is beyond stupendous— the crystalline
triangle strokes in Notte Tropicale, from
Brazilian Impressions, quit float, shim-
mering above the atmospheric strings.

The Liege orchestra sounds like a
world-class ensemble, aided no doubt
by its beautihilly preserved, Itahanate-
Eclectic/beaux-arts Philharmonic Hall,
built in 1887. 1 cheer-
fully admit, however,
that my impressions
of the sound are de-
pendent on Respighi’s
magical evocation
of Rio de Janeiro at
twilight— all sinuous,
airy, impressionistic
suggestions and pastel
colorings. Beethoven
from the heaven-
storming end of the
dynamic range Notte Tropicale is not.

Neschling grew up in Brazil, and
I can’t imagine more polished, more
idiomatic performances of this music—
or more vivid sound. If you love Pines,
Fountains, or Festivals, you owe it to
yourself to grab this SACD/CD. ■

John Marks (john.marks@sorc.com) loves
pausing to listen.

CONTACTS

Wilson Benesch Ltd.

Falcon House
Limestone Cottage Lane
Sheffield S6 INJ, Yorkshire
England, UK

Tel: (44) (0)1142-852656
Web: www.wilson-benesch.com

US distributor

The Sound Organisation

159 Leslie Street
Dallas, TX 75207
Tel: (972) 234-0182
Fax:(972)234-0249
Web: www.soundorg.com

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EXPLORING THE ANALOG ADVENTURE

GRAMOPHONE

DREAMS

BY HERBERT REICHERT

THIS issue: Herb takes the smallest
Magnepan speaker out for a spin
around his music collection.

Dreaming of Maggies

I believe in historical consensus. I believe in
hi-fi gear that reveals its quality slowly
and holds it value over time, irrespec-
tive of technology. I have never bought
into the superiority of one technology over
another. The art of audio engineering lies in
the wisdom and vital energy of the designer’s
viewpoint within whatever technology he or
she has chosen to work with. I call this the
designer’s qi or chi. Every audio product’s most
important specification is who created it, fol-
lowed hy the spirit in which it was fostered—
and, of course, how it was made and what it is
made of These are the determining factors
for long-term audio relevance.

Whenever there is something fundamen-
tally correct in a designer’s approach, the
chances become extra good that the products
of his or her efforts vrill reveal to a wide range
of Hsteners fundamental musical truths. And for
me, the best thing about musical tmths is that
they never change or go out of fashion.

Magnepan, Inc. is a perfect example of
an American audio manufacturer that, since
1969, has based its considerable reputation on
creating a series of innovative loudspeakers;
that have never gone out of fashion. Magne-
pan’s founder and chief designer, Jim Winey,
has parlayed a fundamentally sound design
philosophy into an evolving series of musi-
cally satisfying planar-magnetic dipole speak-
ers. Magnepan’s latest model, the .7, is a full
quasi-ribhon design of elegant appearance that
consistently reveals many of those fundamental musical truths.

Me, Dad, and Jim

I spent the hm part of my childhood on the family farm in
the big woods near Clayton, Wisconsin, about 57 miles east-
northeast of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, home of Mag-
nepan. Clayton winters are long and chilly, and if you don’t
leave the area, you have few decent choices for employment.
You can work at the Moon Lake Tavern, trap minnows and
leeches, or travel to Minnesota and work at the factory of
Anderson Windows & Doors. Better yet: like Magnepan’s
founder, Jim Winey, you can get ajob at Minnesota Mining
and Manufacturing, aka 3M.

Like Winey, my dad started out as a trapper. Also like
Jim, I worked for John Deere & Co. in Des Moines, Iowa.

I’ve always been into photography, and again, just like Jim
Winey, I built my first enlarger from an old Kodak bellows
camera, some black pipe, and a coffee can. Obviously, I
have a strong urge to tell endless stories about Magnepan’s
founder, the northern lights, and fishing for walleye in the
Land of 10,000 Lakes, hut suffice it to say: I have a lot in

Left: The Magnepan .7. Above: the Magnepan
DWM woofer.

common with Jim Winey, and a lot
of admiration for what he and his
company have accomplished.'

And now . . .

Magnepan speakers have evolved
slowly over the last 46 years, each new
model seeming to improve on the
speed and transparency of its predeces-
sor. Each change in size has enabled
Jim Willey’s designs to interface with
a wider range of users and environ-
ments. However, because I’m a slow
learner, it has taken me four decades
to grasp the full beauty of what Mag-
nepan’s unique transducers can do.
Now older and more experienced, I’m excited to share what
I’ve discovered.

At 54 V 4 " high hy 15*4" wide by only 1*4" deep, Mag-
nepan’s new .7 is smaller than the 1.7 and bigger than
the earlier MMG. When I heard a pair of .7s at the 2015
Consumer Electronics Show, they made me heg and plead. I
stuck out my lower lip. I pouted. At last, Magnepan’s forever
national sales manager, Wendell Diller, reluctantly agreed to
loan me a pair. I had to promise I’d send him one of Dad’s
old muskie lures.

Compared to most other speakers, the hest thing about
the elegant .7 is that you can store its boxes under your bed.
The second best thing is the price: $1400/pair. The worst
thing: They give you no place to set your record covers, CD
boxes, or beverage bottles.

If you’re unfamihar with ribbon or quasi-ribbon speak-
ers, just imagine a cone-dome-and-wooden-box speaker
run over by a steamroller. The result is only 1*4" thick. Your
woofer cone and voice-coil— imagine a paper or plastic

1 See David Lander’s interview with Jim Winey in the January 2003 issue, Vol.26
No.l : 3vww.stereophile.com/interviews/103wmey/index.html.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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GRAMOPHONE DREAMS ))]

funnel with some magnet wire coiled
around its stem— have been trans-
formed into an extremely thin sheet of
Mylar with an equally thin grid of alu-
minum foil or wire glued to its surface.
This Mylar sheet and conductor lattice
weigh only a fraction of your original
fumiel-and-coiled-wire assembly. Your
dome tweeter has been replaced by
parallel wires or strips of 0.125"-wide
aluminum foil. Your wooden box is
now a simple frame of MDF support-
ing the stretched Mylar.

Funnels and domes, with their wads
of copper wire wound around their
stems, constitute the magnetically
powered moving masses of conventional
woofers and tweeters. In a quasi-rib-
bon, that thin, tightly stretched Mylar
sheet with aluminum-foil grid serves
the same hinction as your old cone or
dome and voice-coil— except that the
radically lower mass of the Mylar and
foil permit greater acceleration and
deceleration of a considerably larger
piston capable of moving a lot more air
than your little 8" cones. A pure ribbon
driver further reduces this low moving
mass by eliminating the Mylar sheet.
(Attaching a ribbon to a sheet of Mylar
is what makes such a speaker a quasi-
ribbon design.)

To move back and forth, the drivers
of traditional cone voice-coils, ribbons,
and quasi-ribbons all require the force-
over-area assistance of magnets. Unlike
in a cone driver, which has a single,
massive magnet surrounding a conical
voice-coil, a planar-magnetic driver
uses matrices of much smaller magnets
that are able to distribute their static
forces more evenly over a larger area,
potentially making possible more
accurate pistonic motion.

Ribbon, quasi-ribbon, and electro-
static speakers (which replace a matrix
of permanent magnets by grids of
highly charged stators in the last type)
are all about speed— they achieve their
distinctive sonic characters by moving
substantial amounts of air quickly and
with relatively little effort.

These don't squawk!

Knowing I’d never owned Magnepan
speakers, and thinking (wisely, cor-
rectly) that I might need some mentor-
ing, Wendell Diller sent retailer Lyric
Hi-Fi’s Maggie speciahst, Igor Pelse,
to install the two optional Magnepan
DWM woofer panels ($795 each) and
position the .7 panels for best tone and
imaging. When he left, Pelse instructed
me to play a weird recording with a

powerful heartbeat to break in the
.7s. I didn’t have that CD, so I used
Bill Laswell’s psychotronic Dreams
of Freedom: Ambient Translations of Bob
Marley in Dub (CD, Axiom 524419).
Great idea— except, with the speakers
playing, I couldn’t get any farm chores
done. I kept getting sucked into Las-
well’s wild spatial and imaging effects.
This is trance and ambient music at its
shp-mto-a-spHff-dream best. I know,
electronic ambient Marley sounds
like a dubious concept— but Dreams
of Freedom is beautifully lissome and
sophisticated. Laswell paints vivid aural
pictures with big, morphing, reverber-
ating sounds. Piano chords fade and
stretch— front to back, right to left-
while bass and drums frame and punc-
tuate the plasma-like vocals. Within
minutes, I realized that the Magnepan
.7s could image with the best speakers
ever, and were going to take my music
listening somewhere it had never quite
been before. “Everything’s . . . gonna
be alright . . .”

Creek Evolution 100A

The first record I sat down and listened
carefully to was Billie Holiday’s The
First Frive Sessions (2 LPs, Verve VE-2-
2503). Tonal balance was extremely
good, and the stability of the dual-
mono image fell into the Oh wow! cat-
egory. Billie was the blue Billie I always
love. Likewise, George Jones was still
the greatest country singer since Hank
and Lefty. But after listening to a few
very dynamic, high-resolution Eno and
Chesky downloads, I realized that the
class-G Creek lOOA integrated ampli-
fier that I reviewed in July (base price
$2195) couldn’t deliver enough current
or control to make the Maggies jump
and sing.

Hegel Music Systems H160

Wendell Diller told me that Magne-
pans are most happy with traditional
class-AB, direct-coupled, high-current
amps. He said I could recognize the
best ones by their ability to double
their power into 4 ohms from 8
ohms. Well, the Hegel H160 class-AB
integrated amplifier that I reviewed in
June ($3500) almost does that (l50Wpc
into 8 ohms, 250Wpc into 4 ohms),
so I promised Diller I’d use it. During
the Hstening for my review of it in the
June 2015 issue, the Hegel H160 easily
drove every speaker I threw at it, and
I felt certain it would get a strong grip
on the hungry .7s.

It did. With the Hegel driving

The first Maggie!

the .7s, each wired in parallel with a
DWM bass panel (2 ohms average im-
pedance below 200Hz, 4 ohms above),
every type of music was delivered with
ease and rock-steady confidence. But
the Hegel H160 driving the .7s also
delivered a big surprise. I always knew
that Magnepan made nice-sounding
speakers, but I’d never heard any
Magnepans that I thought did deliri-
ous boogie or fierce, driving, forward
momentum. That was always my main
complaint about them. Well, the Hegel
and Magnepan .7s proved me totally
wrong. Think speeding trucks. Think
twin-engine freight trains motorvating
downhill. Think dance like a butterfly,
strike like a hammer.

The Hegel-Maggie marriage was
solid, productive, always lusty, and
especially fond of solo-piano record-
ings, giving the instmment a weighty
but balanced sound in the lower and
upper registers. With every recording,

I thought. Who needs more than this?

Vinnie Rossi LIO

Vinnie Rossi’s new LIO integrated
amplifier ($3280; review in the works),
while outputting only 25Wpc into
8 ohms, seemed exactly what Diller
was talking about. The LIO is a high-
current, class-AB, MOSFET amplifier
that, Rossi says, allows for “very strong
direct-current delivery” into speaker
loads that dip below 8 ohms. Accord-
ing to him, the LIO “cranks out cur-
rent for stable power output of up to
65 watts per chaimel into 2 ohms.”

Driving the Magnepan .7s without
the DWM woofers, the LIO sounded
supersweet, tautly detailed, and
fantastically musical— but when the

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

( ( ( GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

music got going extra strong, the LIO-
Maggie pairing became a little limp. At
low volumes, I could swim easy in the
warm, colorful space of the music, and
big classical orchestras and solo guitars
retained most of their scale and tex-
ture. In fact, the Rossi LIO showed me
just how spectacularly the Magnepans
could play at low volumes. At higher
volumes, however, it was clear that the
LIO was not a perfect match.

Simaudio Moon Neo 3401

I’ve used Simaudio’s Moon Neo
340i integrated amp ($4600, review
underway) on and off for at least nine
months. I love it. Always grainless,
dynamic, and blatantly invisible, it
has become my reference for what a
high-quality contemporary integrated
can do and should be. It took perfect
hold of the Magnepan .7s in a way
that made it abundantly clear that this
$1400/pair loudspeaker has not been
compromised by its price. Music was
presented in the rich, refined maimer
of a Moet Cuvee Dry Imperial (1943).

Rogue Audio Sphinx

The Rogue Audio Sphinx, my ongoing
reference for extreme quality at ex-
treme low price ($1295), played ridicu-
lously well with the Magnepan .7s and
their DWM bass panels. Bass, boogie,
and transient response were better
than with any other amp I tried with
the Maggies. The midrange was fully
fleshed out and exquisitely textured.
Highs were open and free of anything
but tact, grace, and elegance. This was
a system for playing any kind of music,
including Janis Joplin, Leo Ferre, and
pipe organist E. Power Biggs. The first
black disc I tried through the Sphinx’s
phono stage stuimed me like a Taser:
Charlie Haden’s The Ballad of the Fallen,
with Carla Bley and Don Cherry (LP,
ECM 1248), seemed disarmingly big,
robust, vivid, and extremely tactile.

Bass was authentically toned. The
midrange was more recessed and no-
ticeably less transparent than with the
Simaudio Moon 340i, but also more
textured. Most important, presence,
weight, and body were the best I’ve
experienced in my Bed Stuy bunker.
These Maggies did slam, and this
record revealed some startlingjump
factor that I’d never known was there.

Speaking of jump factor, the Rogue
Sphinx does in fact double down into
4 ohms, to 200Wpc, and always gets
a firm but loving grip on whatever
speaker I connect it to. The Rogue-

Maggie combo played Led Zeppelin’s
II (CD, Atlantic 82633-2) absolutely
effortlessly— with measured lOOdB
peaks! I have never enjoyed this disc
more. The .7s boogied and swung
better than any Magnepans I could re-
member. And you know what? Against
all those screaming vocals and bass-
drum thunder, the Magnepans also
played gently and gracefully, preserving
all of Zep’s bluesy, lullaby qualities.

Listening to the Animals’ version
of “The House of the Rising Sun” (7"
45rpm, MGM K13264), I realized that
the Rogue Sphinx is a lot better than I
said it was in my first-ever Stereophile
review, in the August 2014 issue.^ Lis-
tening to Brian Eno and David Byrne’s
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (LP, Sire
SRK 6093) through the Rogue-Mag-
gie combo was so exciting, so intense,
so inexpensive that I have no choice but
to steal a description from a Facebook
friend: “It was like having sex in the
back seat of a stolen car!”

The Goldilocks Conundrum

Without one of the optional DWM
bass panels, the .7s could occasionally
sound a little bass shy— but the micro-
detail, transient attack, transparency,
and soundstaging were always spine-
tingling, so I could usually ignore it.

Typically, when I first switch from
a planar dipole back to a conventional
box speaker, I experience bewilder-
ment and disappointment. That didn’t
happen when I replaced the .7s with
the KEF LS50s.^ Right away— and
again— I was impressed by how won-
derfully the little LS50s play music. To
their credit, the LS50s did not sound
more boxy or small or less detailed
than the Maggies. The KEFs gave me
slightly deeper and even more power-
ful-sounding bass. But- compared to
the Magnepan .7s, the LS50s’ midrange
and lower treble sounded thicker and
significantly less transparent, and their
treble less extended and refined. The
LS50s image extremely well, and a lot
better than most speakers— but not as

Above left:

Tensioning
the Magnepan
diaphragm
material.

Right: glueing
the voice-coil to
the diaphragm.

extremely well as did the
Magnepan .7s.

The biggest differ-
ence between these
two extraordinary
loudspeakers was,
first and foremost, the
question of amplification. The KEF
LS50 is easy to drive, and plays well
with a wide range of low- to medium-
priced amplifiers. It’s fine with my
22Wpc Line Magnetic tube amp.

The Magnepan .7, on the other hand,
requires a current-generating machine
like the Hegel H160 or the Rogue
Sphinx. But— one of the most beautiful
things about Jim Winey’s design is that
it’s not a cheaper (ie, compromised
to meet a low price point) version of
their flagship model— it’s just a smaller
version. All the way through my
listening for this review, I speculated
that the .7 might simply be the “just
right” Magnepan size, and in no way
a compromise. Therefore, an aspir-
ing audio perfectionist might feel it
reasonable— might even feel entitled— to
spend bigger money on a superlative
amp. I also hstened to the .7s driven
by Pass Labs’ XA100.5 monoblocks
($ 16,500/pair). I felt I was remote
viewing in Valhalla!

The second difference was in the
bass. I could very happily live with the
Magnepans sans hasse supplementaire. But
I really love my Charlie Haden and
Manuel De Falla and Wendy Carlos
and Philip Glass with the DWM pan-
els. The DWMs hand off to the main
speakers at 200Hz, which is deep into
the region of male and female voices.
That makes positioning the DWMs
shghtly tricky, potentially labor inten-
sive— and entirely worth the effort.

I encourage all interested parties to
begin with a pair of .7s alone. Move
them closer to you and farther from
the front wall until you like the tone

2 See www.stereophile.com/content/rogue-audio-
sphinx-integrated-amplifier.

3 See www.stereophile.eom/content/kef-ls50-anni-
versary-model-loudspeaker.

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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quality. Toe them in so that their
tweeter axes cross at the tip of your
nose. Adjust the distance between
the speakers and the positions of the
tweeters (along the speakers’ inside or
outside edges) to suit your needs for
instrumental weight, treble delicacy,
and soundstage size.

After you’ve gotten the .7 s zeroed
in— ie, when the tone is right and the
imaging is laser tight— be prepared to
change those positions again when
you add the DWMs. With the DWM,
positioning is all about getting right the
hyper-important 60-300Hz region.

I recommend beginning with the
DWM panel about 1' behind or 1' in
front of the main drivers, then rotating
the woofer on its own axis— which
simultaneously adjusts level, power,
and crossover frequency. Be prepared
to hear substantial changes in tone and
transparency by moving the woofer
(and/or the main speakers) as little
as 2". When pianos and voices sound
right— you got it.

The moral of this story is . . .

The Magnepan .7 costs $1400/pair.
The Rogue Audio Sphinx costs $1295.
Throw in some AudioQuest Type 4
speaker cables ($124/10' pair) and a
pair of AQ’s Golden Gate intercon-
nects ($68.99/meter pair) and you
have a complete, made-in-America,
very audiophile- grade, stereo for less
than $3000 (not including source).

Add the DWM bass panels ($795
each) and you’re still under $3700,
but you’re experiencing big, punchy,
unbelievably refined reproduction of
music. Add a Pioneer PLX-1000 turn-
table ($699), a Shure SCA35C ($75)
cartridge, and a Schiit Bifrost ($349)
or Halide HD ($499) DAC, and you
have full-tilt, stupid-good, play-your-
tunes-with-all-the-big-boys, major
pro-style audio system . . . for under
$5000! By the standards of high-end
audiophiles, that’s borderline Class
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NAXOS

WORLD

KLAUS HEYMANN ON PANDORA, SOUNDEXOHANGE

AND WHYODs ON DEMAND IS HIS EUTURE. by ROBERT BAIRD

S it because no one takes
pot shots at you unless
you’re on top? Or are the
most recent criticisms of
Klaus Heymann and his
diversified Naxos Digital Services empire on to
something more?

To refresh: Heymann, a German entrepreneur who began
selling cameras and stereos to American GIs in Viemam, and
later became the Hong Kong distributor of Bose and Studer

audio gear, launched Naxos, a classical-music label specializing
in budget-priced CDs, in 1987. The label’s name is easy to pro-
nounce in any language. Heymann began to build the Naxos
catalog— now one of the largest in classical music— by recording
young and often unknown artists and orchestras, most from
Eastern and Central Europe. Soon, displays of Naxos CDs, all
of their covers conforming to a uniform, instantly recogniz-
able design, became to crop up in record stores large and small.
Jokes about hearing Beethoven played by the Pottsylvania
Radio Orchestra began to circulate among competitors and
fans alike. From the very beginnrng, a more potent argument
existed about whether these bargain recordings would degrade

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the standards of young classical lis-
teners: Would hearing Beethoven
for the first time as played by a
second-rate orchestra dilute the
abihty of beginning Hsteners to
discern merely good from tmly
great performances? Then again, at
least people were listening.

The latest controversy to swirl
around Naxos concerns their
decision to strike a deal with the
streaming service Pandora directly
rather than through SoundEx-
change, the independent digital per-
formance rights organization. In an era
when the streaming of recordings is fast
draining away what little money remains
in the music business, suspicions im-
mediately arose that something nefarious
was afoot.

In the March 24, 2015, issue of Bill-
board, Ray Hair, president of the Ameri-
can Federation of Musicians, responded
to the Naxos/Pandora deal:

Members ofthe... (AFM) continue
to he deeply concerned about greed and
profiteering in the music industry, at the
expense of those who create music. Profes-
sional musicians deserve to be treated
better. We make all the music, hut it seems
like everyone else makes all the money.

We are alarmed by the agreement
recently reached between Pandora and
Naxos, the world’s leading classical music
label, on a multi-year US license for the
entire Naxos catalog. We were concerned
when their joint announcement was
notably silent on any mention of fair and
direct payment of royalties to artists.

Heymann responded in a letter that
Billboard chose not to pubhsh. That
response read, in part:

Since its foundation more than 25 years
ago the mission of Naxos has been to make
classical music accessible and affordable.
More than any other record company,
Naxos has invested in music education and
in recording a wider range of repertoire than
any other company, major or independent.
At the same time, Naxos has promoted
many new and young artists and pef arm-
ing arts groups. Its catalogue of American
classical music is second to none, built at
substantial cost over time.

It is both absurd and offensive for AFM
President Ray Hair to insinuate in his
recent Billboard op-ed that Naxos was
motivated by greed and profiteering in its
recent deal with Pandora. Writing these
comments without any attempt to contact
Naxos is irresponsible and reckless, and
does not serve musicians well.

Naxos remains committed to its artists
and is committed to ensuring that all
amounts owed for plays on Pandora are
reported and paid to them in a timely and
concise manner. This deal was done for the
benefit of musicians worldwide.

Recently, I met Heymann in midtown
Manhattan, at the Parker Meridien
Hotel, the day after he’d received the
Sanford Medal from the Yale School of
Music.

“Pve looked at all the people [who
received the medal] before and they’re all
eminent or almost eminent musicians.”

THE MUSIC LIBRARY
IS PROFITABLE. JAZZ
IS BREAKING EVEN.
THE RADIO, PROBA-
BLY BREAKING EVEN.

Dressed in a gray zip-up vest, black
shirt and pants, and new, hipsteresque,
low-top tennis shoes, Heymann, with
his healthy gray mane and busy activity
level, does not look his 78 years. Famed
for being a hardnosed wheeler-dealer
with a head for figures and a talent for
s niffin g out future trends in the music
business, Heymann is clearly proud that
he was into streaming before streaming
was cool, or even a ghnt in the music
biz’s eye. The back of his business
card hsts the eight websites, seven of
them streaming-based, that Naxos has
launched since the late 1990s.

“In 1996, we made our whole catalog
available for streaming. It was the very
first in the history of the industry. But
at that time, it was not paid. It was a
marketing tool. The idea was, people
listen online, track by track, low fidehty,
go to the shop, and buy the CD. It was
very expensive, because bandwidth was
extremely expensive in ’96.

“It remained that until 2002— until
bandwidth costs had come down. Also,
there were a lot more people with

access to the Internet, and that’s
where we launched the www.
NaxosMusicLibrary.com. It was
$9.95 a month. That was the first
paid streaming service. There
was something else before, but
it was not from the industry. It
was from outside, Classical.com
or something. That sort of faded
away.

“In 2004, we launched the
radio (www.NaxosRadio.com).
Way before Internet radio, we
had 80 pre-programmed channels. If
you want to spend your time Hstening
to guitar and lute, you get the guitar and
lute channel. If you like Strauss, there’s
a Strauss channel. That was paid ($20
a year), but every user who hangs on it
uses one stream of our bandwidth. And
the people who subscribe, they turn it
on in the morning, 9 o’clock, when they
get to the office, [and] they turn it off 6
o’clock, when they leave the office. That
uses a lot of bandwidth. We never fig-
ured out how to make it commercially
viable, so it got neglected. Now that
bandwidth has become cheaper, we’U
probably revive it. We actually hired a
radio personahty to run it.

“Then we have the video hbrary
[www.NaxosVideoLibrary.com] which
came in, I think, in 2006. Jazz [www.
NaxosMusicLibrary.cotn/jazz] came in
2005. Then we built our download site,
ClassicsOnline.com, which we’ve now
revamped into www.ClassicsOnlineHD.
com, with both streaming and down-
loads.

“There is nothing nefarious [in the
Pandora deal]. We own those rights
anyway. We have all the rights from our
artists. Our contracts with the artists say
we have all rights: all rights in perpetu-
ity in whatever format, now known or
unknown, from day one. So ifs not that
we’re not paying the artists— the artists
are not entitled to any payment from us.
Those are the deals in classical music,
and most labels are the same.

“We go to the artists and say, ‘Look,
there are millions sitting there that
hasn’t been paid. You give us the power
of attorney, and we collect your half
and then pay you a share of that in
exchange for doing the work.’ Because
the societies also want to have— it’s very
onerous what they want. They want an
ISRC [International Standard Recording
Code] supplied, and artists cannot supply
ISRCs so they don’t get paid. So now we
go with our databases and say, ‘Here’s the
database, here’s the power of attorney,
now you pay us.’”

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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But for consumers— not
musicians— the central ques-
tion about streaming con-
cerns not money but formats.

Will streaming eventually kill
off all forms of physical media
and render record collecting
obsolete— that is, owning
a personal library of music
recordings, be it physical or
digital, in a house or in the
cloud?

“There are so many ways
now to Hsten to music, and unfortu-
nately a lot of it is free. Streaming takes
away from downloads and from physi-
cal. There’s no doubt— just look at the
numbers.

“In 2013, 1 think Naxos had five titles
that sold more than 10,000 [physical]
copies. In 2014, not a single one sold
more than 10,000. Our best-selling title
sold 7000. That shows a dramatic drop
in one year.

“[The CD is] not going to die. Even
five years from now, we’U be making
CDs, but it’s going to be in smaller and
smaller quantities. Anything where you
sell less than 1000 copies does not really
recoup the investment of manufacturing,
booklets, all that. So if sales continue to
drop, and more titles reach that point
where you cannot sell at least 1000 or
1500, then ifs going to be digital and CD
on demand. But 10% of the titles, five
years from now, will stiU sell 3000, 4000,
5000 [physical] copies.

“I think what will probably happen
is that, increasingly, we will release only
new recordings digitally [downloads].
And we’re moving towards manufactur-
ing on demand for those digital-only
recordings.

“Right now, digital only is about
25% of all our releases. I think, over the
next two or three years, it will probably
move to 50%. Five years from now,
maybe 75%. What we may see happen
in between is that there may be a new
high-definition physical format becom-
ing accepted. Maybe data disc, where
you can sell high-definition files?”

Throughout our conversation, I never
heard Heymann utter the words listen in
regard to a specific format. I asked him
how he Hstens to music.

“Online. Naxos Music Library, Clas-
sicsOnlineHD. I still have all my wife’s
CDs at home, because she says she’s not
an online person. But that’s all. I stiU
listen to CDs for new artists, new record-
ings, but . . .”

With physical formats stuck or declin-
ing, and with music of every variety

THE RECORD
BUSINESS HAS TO
SURVIVE THE NEXT
FIVE YEARS, UNTIL
THERE’S A BUSINESS
MODEL THAT WORKS.

becoming a less important ailtural expe-
rience for miUennials and younger— not
to mention that we Hve at a time when
a few hundred in unit sales wiU land you
halfway up the Billboard classical charts—
the question is obvious: Does the entire
business that accompanies the playing
and recording of classical music have a
future, in this or any other country?

“Ninety percent of what we record
now loses money, if I count only the rev-
enue from selling CDs and downloads.
We make money because [of] this huge
back catalog [and] the labels we bought,
and we make money from providing ser-
vices to other people: digital and physical
distribution. I think the physical [distri-
bution] is also not profitable anymore,
but the digital [downloads] is linked to
that, and that makes money. The music
library is profitable. The video Hbrary
is not. Jazz is breaking even. The radio,
probably breaking even.

“But ifs not dying. The streaming
income in the first quarter of this year
more than made up for the loss of the
download income, but hasn’t made up
for the loss in CD sales. That means a lot
more music is consumed, but we get less
money for it.

“At the same time, you reach a lot
more people. I just looked at the latest
figures we made, and I think last year
our digital income was almost $5 mil-
lion US, excluding CD sales. Thafs
from iTunes, Pandora, Amazon, from
whatever. What does that mean? We can
close the warehouses tomorrow, destroy
all the CDs, close down most of the
offices, and ]still] have a very good busi-
ness. But that’s us— because we have this
huge catalog. It’s all available online and

is properly exploited. We are
mnning our own platforms.
Not many can do that.

“I’m not worried ]about
classical music] because,
look: The classical record
business in the United States
is about a $100-milhon-a-
year business. The classical
music business in the United
States is about a $5-bilHon-
a-year business, if you
consider [the] MetropoHtan
Opera budget, ballet budget, orchestras’
budgets, and the music schools, etc. We
are only [a] tiny little appendix to this
whole, and that will never go away. It
may shrink from $5 billion to $4.5 to
$4 billion, but it will still be there.

“Classical in the US, it was always
between 3% and 4% of the total record
business. Ifs shrunk in line with the rest
of the business. In Europe, in the best
times, it was 10% of the total record
business. And I think right now ifs 5%,
maybe 6%, depending on the market;
Germany, maybe England, a Httle bit
higher.

“And streaming in Europe is stiU not
such a big business, except in Scandi-
navia. I’m not concerned about the
classical-music business as a whole. The
record business has to survive the next
five years, until there’s a business model
that works. The present business model
does not work. The artists don’t get paid.
Even with the artists not being paid,
the record companies stiU don’t make
money. Thaf s not a business. And what
you get for the music is not enough.

“In the past, we’ve said we compete
with Universal, EMI, and we worry
about them. Now we worry about
what Google is going to do next, what
Amazon is going to do next, what Apple
is going to do next. They are the giants.
And, frankly, this new development
about exclusive content, we had that in
the old days, before iTunes, when War-
ner had this exclusive ... if s not going to
work. Apple can buy Warner tomorrow.
Google can buy Sony. Ifs pocket money
for them. What happens then would be
an interesting scenario.”

And what about Naxos? Any interest
from Microsoft? Does Heymann— who
says he and his wife now spend summers
in New Zealand, to escape the poUution
in Hong Kong— have any thoughts of
seUing and getting away from the con-
stant turmoU of a fast-changing business
that may, after aU be, be doomed?

“I have offers aU the time, but I
wouldn’t seU Naxos. Ifs my passion.” ■

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EQUIPMENT REPORT

JOHN ATKINSON

Ayre Acoustics MX-R Twenty

MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER

O f the hundreds of product reviews I have written
over the years, it is perhaps those of power
amphfiers that present the hardest task in defining
their worth. This is not because power amps are
unimportant. As I wrote in my review of the MBL Corona
CIS monoblock, in June 2014, “it is the power ampHfier that
is responsible for determining the character of the system’s
sound, because it is the amplifier that must directly interface
with the loudspeakers. The relationship between amplifier
and loudspeaker is complex, and the nature of that relation-
ship literally sets the tone of the sound quahty.”* But because
the amphfier’s role is so fundamental, it can at first be
difficult to determine a given amp’s balance of virtues and
failings. A paradox.

As well as that MBL, in recent years I have reviewed
the Pass Labs XA60.5, in January 2014;^ the Lamm M1.2
Reference, in April 2012f and the Classe CT-M600, in
March 201 1.'* All four amphfiers are relatively expensive
monoblocks, though the Pass ($ 11,000/pair) and the Classe
($13, 000/pair) cost much less than the MBL ($25,000/
pair) and the Lamm ($27,190/pair). (All prices current as of
February 2015.) But one monoblock I wish I had reviewed
was the Ayre Acoustics MX-R, which, at the time of Wes
Phillips’s review, in April 2007,^ cost $ 16,500/pair. Wes had
described the MX-R as being “in many ways— size, energy
efficiency, stability— one of the most remarkable performers
at any price.”

In the brief time I had the MX-Rs in my system, to
perform the measurements that accompanied Wes’s report,
the amplifiers hinted at brilliance. But as they had to be
returned almost immediately, I never got their fiill measure.
Then, at the October 2014 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest,
Ayre Acoustics premiered an updated version of the MX-R,
the MX-R Twenty, to join the KX-R Twenty preampli-
fier (which I reviewed in December 2014) and the AX-5
Twenty integrated amphfier (reviewed elsewhere in this is-
sue by Art Dudley). All three models celebrate the Colorado
company’s 20th anniversary, and each features a reworking
of the half-century-old “diamond” circuit topology. And,
like the AX-5 Twenty, the new version of the MX-R is

considerably more expensive than its predecessor: $29,500/
pair. I had no choice— I had to ask for review samples.

The Twenty

Like all Ayre amphfiers, the MX-R Twenty is an elegant-
looking, zero-loop-feedback, fully balanced design using
discrete devices. Its rated power output is 300W into 8
ohms or 600W into 4 ohms, and it has a single balanced
input jack (XLR). Other than a discreet “Twenty” badge,
the MX-R Twenty is functionally and aesthetically identical
to the MX-R; for a full description, I refer you to Wes Phil-
hps’s 2007 review.

Double Diamonds

The diamond buffer circuit was first described by an MIT
professor, Richard Baker, in 1964. In its simplest form, two
pairs of complementary bipolar transistors are arranged
as emitter-followers in crosswise symmetry, which, with
just four resistors, gives a reliable, •wide-bandwidth circuit
element with very high current gain, very low distortion,
high power-supply rejection ratio, and low output imped-
ance. The downsides are that it uses more devices than other
circuits and, as the input is the paralleled bases of a pair of
complementary transistors (NPN and PNP), is more dif-
ficult to drive.

Art Dudley described this circuit in his review of the orig-
inal AX-5.^ Ayre’s Charles Hansen discussed it in a posting
to the Audio Asylum Web forum in May 2013,^ in which
he admitted that while he didn’t know why the diamond
circuit sounded better than conventional push-pull topolo-
gies, he conjectured that it is the only one in which the two

1 See www.stereophile.com/content/mbl-corona-cl5-monoblock-power-amplifier.

2 See www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-xa605-monoblock-power-amplifier.

3 See www.stereophile.com/content/lamm-ml2-reference-monoblock-power-
amphfier.

4 See www.stereophile.eom/content/class233-ct-m600-amp-ca-m600-monob-
lock-power-amphners.

5 See www.stereophile.com/sohdpoweramps/407ayre/index.html.

6 See www.stereophile.com/content/ayre-acoustics-ax-5-integrated-amplifier.

7 See www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/18/185962.html.

SPECIFICATIONS

Description Solid-state
monoblock power amplifier.
Inputs: 1 balanced. Output
power: 300W into 8 ohms
(24.8dBW), 600W into 4
ohms (24.8dBW). Frequency
range: 0Hz-250kHz. Voltage

gain: 26dB. Input Impedance:
2 megohms. Power con-
sumption: 45W (standby),
120W (operating/no signal).
Dimensions 11" (280mm) W
by 3.75" (96mm) H by 18.75"
(480mm) D. Weight: 52 lbs

(23.6kg).

Finishes Silver, Black (add
$500/pair).

Serial numbers of units
reviewed 14G0129 & '130.
Price $29,500/pair. Approxi-
mate number of dealers: 25.

Manufacturer

Ayre Acoustics, Inc.,
2300-B Central Avenue,
Boulder, CO 80301.

Tel: (303) 442-7300.
Fax: (303) 442-7301.
Web: www.ayre.com.

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AYRE ACOUSTICS MX-R TWENTY

half-signals are joined at a single point in the circuit, with no
intervening circuitry. Thus, the diamond circuit creates an
output that is more faithful to the shape of the input.

When used as a power amphfier’s output stage, the
diamond circuit runs very hot. So for the MX-R Twenty
and AX-5 Twenty, Ayre designed what they call the Double
Diamond output stage, to reduce the operating temperature
so it could he used in the existing MX-R chassis.

Other features include Ayre’s AyreLock voltage regulator
in the power supply, which has a second active device that
draws additional current to ground when the audio circuit
draws less current. “This ‘locks’ the output voltage of the
regulator, regardless of any fluctuations in the load,” says
Hansen. Like every Ayre design since the original MX-R,
the Twenty also uses Ayre’s EquiLock circuitry, which is
intended to compensate for changes in the operating condi-
tions of the voltage-gain transistors when the current they
pass also changes. In the Twenty, however, the transistor
load in the EquiLock circuit, which is a current mirror, has
heen further optimized.

Other improvements over the original MX-R include
custom audio-grade resistors while keeping the Cardas bind-
ing posts and the proprietary polystyrene capacitors.

Transformation

Owners of original MX-Rs can have them upgraded to
Twenty status by returning them to the Ayre factory or to
an authorized Ayre distributor. The chassis, transformers,
and binding posts of the MX-R are kept; everything else is
changed. In North America, Ayre says, MX-Rs purchased
from an authorized dealer will receive a new five-year war-
ranty on transformation to MX-R Twentys.

Music

I used the MX-R Twenty with all of the speakers I have
reviewed this year (see sidebar, “Associated Equipment”); my
auditioning comments and my comparisons with other am-
pHfiers are an amalgam of my experience with all of them
and, in light of the thought expressed in the introduction to
this review, were compiled over a period of several months.

Looking at my notes, it appears that I played a lot of piano
recordings in those months. Many amplifiers have problems
with piano. They can correctly reproduce the weight and
extension of the left-hand register while rendering the right-
hand register too shrilly. Or they emphasize the middle of
the keyboard, with too much clangor to the sound. The
MX-R Twentys, however, offered a clean tonal window into
every recording, no matter how different.

Whether it was Keith Jarrett’s extraordinary new album
Creation (CD, ECM 2450), which was recorded in five dif-
ferent halls in Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Toronto and has an
ultravivid, ultraclose piano image throughout; the concert-
hall perspective of Peter McGrath’s more lifelike recording
of Ivan Davis performing Schumann and Liszt on our “Re-
cording of the Month” for September 1982* (CD, Audiofon
72004); or Philip Martin’s very distant, “clattery”-sounding
ostinato piano in Percy Grainger’s Handel in the Strand, with
Kenneth Montgomery leading the Bournemouth Sinfo-
nietta (CD, Chandos CHAN8377), the Ayre amplifiers
maximized the difference of the sound of each piano from
the others. They simply stepped out of the way of the music,
letting it flow unimpeded. The MX-R Twenty thus proved
the perfect tool for reviewing loudspeakers, each model

8 See www.stereophile.com/content/recordings-scpteraber-1982-two-audiofon-
piano-lps.

MEASUREMENTS

performed a full set of measure-
ments using my Audio Precision
SYS2722 system (see www.
ap.com and the January 2008
"As We See It," www.stereophile.
com/content/measurements-maps-
precision). Before taking any measure-
ments, I preconditioned the Ayre by
running it for 60 minutes at one-third
the specified power into 8 ohms, which
is very much the worst case for an am-
plifier with a class-B or class-A/B out-

Fig.l Ayre MX-R Twenty, frequency response at
2.83V into: simulated loudspeaker load (gray),

8 ohms (blue), 4 ohms (magenta), 2 ohms (red)
(O.SdB/vertical div.).

put stage. Like the original MX-R,' the
MX-R Twenty got hot, the temperature
of its heatsink fins reaching 140.3°F
(60.2‘'C) and the top of its case 116.1°F
(46.8°C). The THD+noise measured
0.03% with the amplifier cold, and sta-
bilized at 0.0178% with the amplifier
hot. While the Ayre's unusual heatsink
has sufficient thermal conductivity
to be effective for an amplifier of this
power rating, the MX-R does need to
be used in a well-ventilated space.

Fig.2 Ayre MX-R Twenty, small-signal lOkHz
squarewave into 8 ohms.

The voltage gain into 8 ohms was a
little lower than the specified 26dB, at
25.1dB, and the amplifier preserved ab-
solute polarity, its XLR jack being wired
with pin 2 hot. The input impedance
is specified at a very high 2 megohms.
Though it is difficult to measure an
impedance this high with any accu-
racy, my measurement indicated that
the input impedance was at least IM

1 See www.stereophile.com/content/ayre-mx-r-
monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements.

Fig.3 Ayre MX-R Twenty, spectrum of IkHz sin-
ewave, DC-lkHz, at: IW into 8 ohms (blue), lOOW
into 8 ohms (red) (linear frequency scale).

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AYRE ACOUSTICS MX-R TWENTY

Ayre MX-R Twenty. I used to love the music of Sibelius,
but hadn’t played any for too long a time. I reached for
Symphony 5, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the
Berlin Philharmonic (ALAC files ripped from CD, EMI
Studio CDM 7 69244 2). To underpin the work’s ambigu-
ous tonality, halfway through the finale Sibelius has the
double basses, normally used by composers to provide a
solid foundation to the harmony taking place above, play-
ing dipisi two notes that “fight,” E-flat and F. With regular
systems, the listener is aware that there is something “sour”
in the apparently muddy sound of the basses at this point;
a look at the score reveals why. With high-quality speakers
driven by the MX-R Twentys, the score is unnecessary— you
hear the discord as Sibelius intended: two low notes almost
identical in frequency, but far enough apart in pitch to be
easily distinguished, and understood as deliberately intended
by the composer.

Comparisons

The Pass Labs XA60.5s have been my go-to amplifiers since
I reviewed them for the January 2014 issue, primarily be-
cause of the spatial magic they work. The soundstage thrown
by the Ayre MX-R Twentys was more forward than that
produced by the Passes, with foreground objects lying more
in the plane of the speakers. In that aspect of their sound,
the MX-R Twentys reminded me of Lamm Industries’

M1.2 References, whose sound has a similar glow. But the
MX-R Twenty’s lows were fuUer than the Lamm’s, and, es-
pecially, better controlled and more weighty than the Pass’s.

Of the amplifiers I had to hand, the champ at controlling

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

Analog Sources Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo
power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources Ayre Acoustics C-Sxei'^P universal player;
Apple 2.7GHz 17 Mac mini running OS10.7, Audirvana
Plus 1.5.10, iTunes 11, Pure Music 2.0; Ayre Acoustics QB-9
DSD, Bricasti Ml, PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A
converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter; dCS
Vivaldi digital playback system.

Preamplification Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier,
Ayre Acoustics KX-R Twenty line preamplifier.

Power Amplifiers Bricasti M28, MBL Corona C15, Pass
Labs XA60.5 (all monoblocks).

Loudspeakers DALI Rubicon 8, Gamut RS7, KEF Blade
Two & LS50, Revel PerformaB M106.

Cables Digital: AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold USB,
Kubala-Sosna Elation! AES/EBU, Transparent USB (with
dCS). Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Wild Blue
(with dCS), Cardas Clear (with Ayre, Bricasti, PS Audio).
Speaker: Cardas Clear. AC: Kubala-Sosna Elation!, manu-
facturers’ own.

Accessories Audio Power Industries 116 Mk.ll & PE-1 AC
line conditioners (computers, hard drive); ASC Tube Traps,
RPG Abffusor panels; Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks; Target
TT-5 equipment racks; AC power comes from two dedi-
cated 20A circuits, each just 6' from breaker box.

—John Atkinson

measurements, continued

llBdB when A-weighted. The blue trace
in fig.3 shows a low-frequency spectral
analysis of the MX-R Twenty's output
while it drove a IkHz tone into 8 ohms.
The individual random noise compo-
nents all lie close to -140dB, and while
power-supply-related spuriae can be
seen at 120 and 240Hz, these lie at a
superbly low -121 and -129dB, respec-
tively. The red trace in fig.3 shows
what happens when the output power
is increased to 100W into 8 ohms.
Supply-related sidebands now appear
at ±120 and +240Hz, but these are still

% 01

ao2

a»i

00 aoe

•00

k »

•t

MkOOh

Fig.7 Ayre MX-R Twenty, THD+N (%) vs frequency
at 8.975V into: 8 ohms (blue), 4 ohms (magenta),
2 ohms (red).

at or below -112dB (0.0025%).

Figs. 4-6 respectively plot how the
percentage of THD+N in the Ayre's
output changes into 8, 4, and 2 ohms.
With our definition of clipping as being
when the THD+N reaches 1%, the
MX-R Twenty comfortably exceeds
its specified power of 300W into 8
ohms (24.8dBW). With the wall volt-
age at 122.4V AC, the Ayre clipped
at 360W into this load (25.6dBW)
and the distortion remained below
0.02% below 100W. Into 4 ohms the
amplifier clipped at 595W (24.7dBW),

Fig.8 Ayre MX-R Twenty, IkHz waveform at 6W
into 4 ohms, 0.057% THD+N (top); distortion and
noise waveform with fundamental notched out
(bottom, not to scale).

and into 2 ohms it clipped at 720W
(22.55dBW), though the distortion
was higher at lower powers into these
loads. (The wall voltage was 119.7V at
the clipping point into 2 ohms.) This
can also be seen in fig.7, which plots
the THD+N percentage against fre-
quency at 8.975V, which is equivalent
to low into 8 ohms, 20W into 4 ohms,
and 40W into 2 ohms. However, the
increase in distortion into lower imped-
ances was not as great as it had been
with the original MX-R.

At low powers, the distortion was

Fig.9 Ayre MX-R Twenty, spectrum of 50Hz
sinewave, DC-lkHz, at IW into 8 ohms (linear
frequency scale).

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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Kkmericmif

AYRE ACOUSTICS MX-R TWENTY

woofers was the MBL Corona C15.
With levels matched to within O.ldB,
the MBL’s reproduction of my solo
Fender Bass tracks on Editor’s Choice
(ABAC files ripped from CD) sounded
tighter but more ethereal than the
Ayre’s. We’re back to that palpability
thing. Both amplifiers gave an almost
perfect combination of leading-edge
definition and tonal weight, but the
Ayres made my Fender sound— and
feel— more as if it were in my hands.

Compared with the Bricasti M28
monoblocks— which, at $30, 000/pair,
compete almost head-on with the
Ayres in price— the MX-R Twen-
tys did lack ultimate low-frequency
extension. As I write in my Follow-
Up review elsewhere in this issue,
the bass guitar and kick drum in “My
Rival,” from Steely Dan’s Gaucho
(24/96 ABAC file transcoded from
FBAC, MCA/HDtracks B0000868-
36), sounded weightier through the
Bricastis than through the Ayres. But
the M28 has a more polite upper-
frequency balance than the MX-R
Twenty.

Conclusions

For an amplifier at any price to be able
to do everything superlatively well is

a big ask. But as I finish writing these
words, I’m listening to Bill Frisell’s
rhapsodic traversal of “Shenandoah,”
from his East/West (ABAC files ripped
from CD, Elektra Nonesuch), with
GamuT RS7 speakers (review forth-
coming) driven by the Ayre MX-R
Twenty amplifiers. The jump factor
of Kenny Wollesen’s snare drum, the
growling palpability of Viktor Krauss’s
double bass, the sense of space sur-
rounding Frisell’s stereo-processed
guitar, the sheer musical communica-
tion— it’s hard to envisage how another
amplifier could do better than this.

But this performance comes at a
price— the Twenty costs nearly 80%
more than the original MX-R. Still, it’s
fair to say that two of the three ampli-
fiers I’ve tried that get closest in overall
sound quality to the Twenty, Bamm’s
M1.2 Reference and MBB’s Corona
CIS, aren’t that much less expensive—
and the third, Bricasti’s M28, costs
sHghtly more.

All I can say is that if fortune has
smiled sufficiently kindly on you that
you can write a check for a pair of
MX-R Twenty amplifiers without
breaking a sweat, you should do so—
and then invite me round for regular
listens. ■

measurements, continued

primarily the third harmonic (figs. 8
and 9), but at high powers this was
joined by both the second harmonic,
at almost the same level (fig.10), and
by a regular series of higher-order
products. These were associated with
low-level crossover distortion that
was visible on the oscilloscope screen.
The original MX-R had been better
behaved in both this respect and
when it came to high-frequency inter-
modulation at high powers. While the
second-order difference component

Fig.10 Ayre MX-R Twenty, spectrum of 50Hz
sinewave, DC-lkHz, at lOOW into 8 ohms (linear
frequency scale).

at IkHz resulting from an equal mix of
19 and 20kHz tones lay at a low -84dB
(0.006%, flg.11), some higher-order
products were visible, though it is fair
to note that almost all of these lie at or
below -90dB (0.003%).

The Twenty version of the MX-R is
significantly quieter than its predeces-
sor while offering a slightly different
distortion signature. But it still packs
a great deal of power Into its relatively
tiny frame. It is a true high-resolution
amplifier.— John Atkinson

Fig.11 Ayre MX-R Twenty, HF intermodulation
spectrum, DC-24kHz, 19+20kHz at 200W peak
into 4 ohms (linear frequency scale).

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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EQUIPMENT REPORT

FRED KAPLAN

Simaudio Moon Evolution 86oA

POWER AMPLIFIER

n the May 2015 issue, I fairly raved about Simaudio’s
Moon Evolution 740P line-stage preamplifier,* and
now here I am confronting its Moon Evolution 860A
power amp. The two are companion models of sorts,
with prices of $9500 for the 740P, $15,000 for the 860A—
and for much of the time I spent listening to the 740P it
was hooked up to the 860A, so some of the descriptions of
sound in this review will seem familiar. The two compo-
nents are both products of the same design shop— Simaudio,
Ltd., of Quebec, which has been a prominent brand in high-
end audio for 35 years— and are often marketed as a pair,
so it should be no surprise if they have a common sound.
However, I did try the 740P with other power amps and the
860A with other preamps, to the point where I could make

some distinctions between the two, parsing which compo-
nent contributed what to their sound together. It turned
out there were differences in shade and emphasis, if not so
much in color or character.

Description and Design

The Moon Evolution 860A is a solid-state amplifier with
a dual-mono design and balanced differential circuitry. It
pumps 200Wpc into 8 ohms or 400Wpc into 4 ohms, run-
ning in class-A up to 5W, then in class-A/B for the rest. The
output stages are powered by 12 bipolar transistors per chan-
nel, each matched to extremely high standards, resulting in a

1 See www.stereophile.eom/content/sim.audio-moon-evolution-740p-line-
preamplificr.

SPECIFICATIONS

Description Solid-state,
dual-mono power ampli-
fier. Inputs; 1 unbalanced
(RCA), 1 balanced (XLR).
Outputs: 2 pairs binding
posts with biwiring option.
Power output: 200Wpc into
8 ohms (23dBW), 400Wpc
into 4 ohms (23dBW).
Frequency response: 10Hz-

200kHz, +0/-3dB. Voltage
gain: 31dB. THD: <0.015%
(20Hz-20kHz, IW), <0.04%
(20Hz-20kHz, 200W).
Signal/noise: >106dB (full
power). Input impedance:
47.5k ohms. Power consump-
tion: 55W at idle.

Dimensions 18.6" (476mm)
W by 7.5" (191mm) H by

17.4" (445mm) D. Weight:
84 lbs (38kg) net, 88 lbs
(40kg) shipping.

Finishes Black, silver, two-
tone.

Serial number of unit re-
viewed 4524200.

Price $15,000. Approximate
number of dealers: 75.
Warranty: 10 years.

Manufacturer

Simaudio Ltd., 1345 Newton
Road, Boucherville, Quebec
J4B 5H2, Canada.

Tel: (450) 449-2212.

US: Simaudio Ltd.

2002 Ridge Road,
Champlain, NY 12919.

Web: www.simaudio.com.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

SIMAUDIO MOON EVOLUTION 860A

wide bandwidth, minuscule distortion, and a low noise floor
(or so claims the owner’s manual). Circuits are DC-coupled,
reducing phase shift and deepening the bass response. Two
custom-built, 500 VA toroidal transformers, made of high-
quality, slow-rolledjapanese steel, are tightly regulated so
that, as the demand for current swells, the supply of voltage
dips by no more than 3%, allowing— again, according to
the owner’s manual— “effortless” dynamic peaks through
the most complex musical passages. The output section’s
high damping factor (specified as 800 for frequencies below
400Hz) “ensures an excellent ‘grip’ on woofer cone mo-
tions.” Signal paths are shortened and impedance lowered
through use of a four-layer circuit board— two layers for each
audio signal, one for the ground, one for the power supply-
etched with copper tracings.

Simaudio’s Zero Global Feedback, a standard feature in
all of its amps since 1998, is claimed to lead to “more ac-

This wasn’t mere
“audiophile” detail
for its own sake; it
was the sort of detail
that enriched the
rhythm and flow.

curate” musical tones, “elimination” of
phase errors, and improved dynamic
range. The 860A also uses Simaudio’s
proprietary Lynx Circuitry (introduced
in 2005), which efficiently distributes
power to each active device in the am-
phfication circuit, resulting in greater
speed and dynamics.

Finally, the 860A physically resembles other Moon Evolu-
tion products, with a sleek, ultrarigid aluminum chassis with
curved edges, and thumbscrew cones protruding from its
four pillar feet to minimize spurious vibrations.

The Setup

The owner’s manual says that the Moon Evolution 860A
needs 300 hours of break-in before it sounds as good as it’s
going to get, and my experience supports that claim. Simau-
dio also suggests leaving the amp on all the time; I found
that any time I turned it off for a few days or longer, it took
a few days (but no longer) to warm back up.

One pair each
of balanced and
unbalanced inputs
and a pair of speaker
binding posts.

MEASUREMENTS

performed a full set of measure-
ments on the Moon Evolution
860A (serial no. 4524200) using
my Audio Precision SYS2722 sys-
tem (see www.ap.com and the January
2008 "As We See It," www.stereophile.
com/content/measurements-maps-
precision). As the amplifier is specified
as having a maximum power output of
200Wpc into 8 ohms, I preconditioned
it before the measurements by running
it at one-third that power, 67W, into 8
ohms for an hour. Following that peri-
od, the heatsinks were warm, at 110.2°F

Fig.l Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, balanced
frequency response at 2.83V into: simulated
loudspeaker load (gray), 8 ohms (left channel blue,
right, red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), 2
ohms (red) (O.SdB/vertical div.).

(43.4°C). The THD+noise percentage
at this power level was 0.0126% with
the amplifier cold, 0.0115% with it fully
warm.

The voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms
was higher than the norm, at 31.3dB
with both balanced and unbalanced
input signals, and the 860A preserved
absolute polarity (/e, was non-invert-
ing) for both inputs. (Its XLR jacks are
wired with pin 2 hot.) The unbalanced
input impedance was to specification
at 46.3k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz, drop-
ping slightly to 34k ohms at 20kHz. The
balanced input impedances were twice
these values, as expected. The output

Fig.2 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, small-signal,
lOkHz squarewave into 8 ohms.

impedance, including 6' of speaker
cable, was very low, at 0.09 ohm at low
and middle frequencies, rising to 0.11
ohm at the top of the audioband. As
a result, the variation in response due
to the interaction between this source
impedance and the impedance of our
standard simulated loudspeaker (see
www.stereophile.com/content/real-
life-measurements-page-2) was just
±0.075dB (fig.l, gray trace).

The frequency response was per-
fectly flat in the audioband, and down
by 3dB at 120kHz into 8 ohms (fig.l,
blue trace). As a result, the M28's re-
production of a 10kHz squarewave was

Fig.3 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, distortion
(%) vs IkHz continuous output power into 8 ohms.

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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SIMAUDIO MOON EVOLUTION 860A

I did all of my Hstening
through Revel’s Ultima Studio2
loudspeakers. For line-stage pre-
amplification, I used the Moon
Evolution 740P most of the time,
though I occasionally swapped it
out for the preamp section of the
Moon Evolution 700i integrated
amp and the Pass Laboratories
XP-30 line-stage preamp.

To compare the 860A with
other power amps, I briefly
hooked up the 740P to the Pass
Labs XA60.5 monoblock amps
and to the amplifier section
of the 700i, reconfiguring the
latter’s software to bypass its pre-
amp section and volume knob.

I’ve had the 700i in my system,
off and on, for almost five years.

I borrowed the Pass electronics from Stereophiys editor, John
Atkinson. And I was so smitten with the sound of the Moon
Evolution 740P preamp that, soon after writing up my ap-
praisal, I bought the review sample.

The Sound

In my review of the Simaudio 740P preamplifier, I waxed
about its get-out-of-the-way transparency, and the way all
the music in a recording was “breathing forth at the same
time.” That might have strack me as a banal observation
until I heard the way it reproduced the wholeness of a piano—
the percussiveness of the hammers, the dynamic contrasts
in the pressure and release of the pedals, the bouquet of

The owner^s
manual says
that the Moon
Evolution 86oA
needs 300 hours
of break-in
before it sounds
as good as it^s
going to get.

overtones wafting in the air,
the resonant vibrations of
the piano itself— all of these
sounds mingling at once in
the same place. Ditto for
the coherence of drums,
and the synchronicity of a band’s
interplay— aU were testimony to the
740P’s low-level detail and distortion-
free hnearity.

I heard this same seamlessness with
the 860A power amp; that is, the 860A amphfied these de-
tails without adding colorations of its own. But I also heard
other things that hadn’t quite been picked up by the other
amps I’d hooked up to the 740P— and that I hadn’t heard, to
such a degree, with other Simaudio amps. Most noticeable
was the bass: subterranean, articulate, complex— and musical,
not just a mush of bass tones. From Dave Douglas’s Charms
of the Night Sky (CD, Winter & Winter 910 015-2) I could

Dual-mono
construction and two
massive, custom-built
transformers provide
the grunt.

measurements, continued

essentially perfect, with no overshoot
or ringing (fig.2). Channel separa-
tion (not shown) was >100dB in both
directions at and below IkHz, and was
still 80dB L-R and 87dB R-L at 20kHz.
Though some spuriae were present
in the 860A’s output at the mains
frequency of 60Hz and its harmon-
ics, these were all at or below -130dB
ref. 2.83V into 8 ohms. The wide,
unweighted signal/noise ratio with the
input shorted to ground was 85.7dB

Fig.4 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, distortion
(%) vs IkHz continuous output power into 4 ohms.

(average of both channels), improving
to 92.7dB with the measurement band-
width restricted to the audioband, and
to 95.1dB when A-weighted. Despite its
higher-than-usual gain, the 860A is a
quiet amplifier.

Figs. 3, 4, and 5 show how the per-
centage of THD+N in the Moon Evolu-
tion 860A's output varied with output
power into, respectively, 8, 4, and 2
ohms. The downward slope of the
traces in these graphs below lOW or

Fig.5 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, distortion
(%) vs IkHz continuous output power into 2 ohms.

so indicates that the actual distortion
lies below the already low noise floor at
low powers. The gentle rise in THD+N
above lOW suggests that the circuit
uses only a modest amount of negative
feedback, though there is a sharp knee
when actual waveform clipping starts
to occur.

The Moon Evolution 860A is speci-
fied as being able to deliver 200Wpc
into 8 ohms or 400Wpc into 4 ohms.

Fig.6 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, THD+N (%)
vs frequency at 12.67V into: 8 ohms (left channel
blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta),
2 ohms (gray).

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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SIMAUDIO MOON EVOLUTION 860A

clearly hear not just which notes but which strings of his
double bass Greg Cohen was plucking: the tautness of the
high strings, the thickness of the low ones, and how loosely
or tightly he was clamping them on the neck. This wasn’t
mere “audiophile” detail for its own sake; it was the sort of
detail that enriched the rhythm and flow, and that fleshed
out the presence of a human musician.

The second big improvement was in the percussive edge
of instruments’ sounds: the strum of a guitar, the whack
of a bass drum, the sss of a sibilant. Another example from
that Dave Douglas album: In the March 2011 issue, when I
compared the Simaudio 700i with the Krell FBI— both high-
powered, high-priced integrated amps^— I noted that when
Douglas’s trumpet and Mark Feldman’s violin played in
unison, both amps allowed me to distinguish the two, each
in a different way. The FBI let me hear the transient attack
of Douglas’s mouthpiece and Feldman’s bowing; the 700i let
me hear their distinct harmonic overtones and the way that
brass vibrations sounded different from vibrating wood and
string. I didn’t hear those vibrations so clearly through the
FBI, nor did I hear those transient attacks so clearly through
the 700i. The 860A power amp let me hear both. The
overtones were still clearer than the transients, but those
transients were clearly, cleanly there.

There was a similarly revealing detail in “My Furmy Val-
entine,” from Miles Davis’s Cookin’ (SACD/CD, Prestige/
Analogue Productions LAPJ 7094 SA). When the quintet
breaks into a faster tempo, the FBI revealed Philly Joe Jones
letting up on the hi-hat cymbal after tapping it with his stick,
an effect that adds an extra layer of rhythm and cool that I
hadn’t noticed with the 700i (or with many other amps I’d

What most impressed
me, as it had with the
740P, was my sheer
pleasure in listening
to music.

sampled). I could
hear this extra layer
with the 860A as
well. Ditto for “Nu-
ages,” the first track
of Chasin’ the Gypsy,
saxophonist James
Carter’s inventive

tribute to Django Reinhardt (CD, Atlantic 83304-2). In the
comparison with the Krell, I wrote that the 700i didn’t let
me hear all the subtle rhythms and counter-rhythms tapped
out by the triangles, bells, woodblocks, and other percussive
bric-a-brac in Carter’s ensemble. Again, the 860A did show
and tell all, in full flair.

I don’t mean, by any of this, to compare the Simaudio
860A with any current Krell power amps (which, in any
case, I haven’t heard). I’m only saying that certain trade-offs
that came with past Simaudio amps have— at least with the
860A— largely evaporated.

However, one comparison that I noted back in 2011— be-
tween the percussive touch and the gorgeous overtones of
Frank Kimbrough’s piano on the Maria Schneider Jazz Or-
chestra’s Sky Blue (CD, ArtistShare AS0065)— still held true:
the 860A still didn’t let me hear quite the full body contact
with those keys. But, at the same time, the harmonic bloom
was fuller still, and the horn sections were more palpable.

A minute into the first track, “The ‘Pretty’ Road,” when the
woodwinds come in under the blaring brass, I could hear
the saxes blowing— not jmt the value of the notes they were

2 See www.stereophile.com/ content/ simaudio-moon-evolution-700i-integrated-
ampliiier.

measurements, continued

both powers equivalent to 23dBW.
Flowever, figs. 3-5 indicate that, with
our usual definition of clipping as the
power when the THD+N reaches 1%,
the Simaudio delivers ISOWpc into
8 ohms (22.55dBW) or 290W into 4
ohms (18.6dBW), both figures taken
with both channels driven; or 465W
into 2 ohms (20.65dBW), one channel
driven. The wall AC voltage was 122.6V
with no signal being amplified, and
121.3V at the clipping point into 4 or 2
ohms, so that doesn't explain the slight
shortfall in maximum output power.

<1 m , .

•• tl c i» 3f

Time in ms

Fig.7 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, IkHz wave-
form at 15W into 8 ohms, 0.005% THD+N (top);
distortion and noise waveform with fundamental
notched out (bottom, not to scale).

Even so, the Moon Evolution 860A is
still a very powerful amplifier.

Measured at 12.67V — equivalent
to 20Wpc into 8 ohms, 40Wpc into
4 ohms, or 80W into 2 ohms — the
THD+N percentage remained very low
into higher impedances, and the rise of
THD in the top two octaves was mild
(fig.6). The amplifier was clearly less
comfortable driving high frequencies
at this power level into 2 ohms, though
the THD+N remains below 0.1%. The
distortion signature, primarily a mix of
the second and third harmonics (fig.7).

Fig.8 Si maudio Moon Evolution 860A, spectrum
of 50Hz sinewave, DC-lkHz, at 200W into 4 ohms
(linear frequency scale).

remains low in level even at very high
powers into 4 ohms (fig.8). Intermodu-
lation distortion at a level just below
visible clipping on the oscilloscope
screen was also low (fig.9), the differ-
ence component at 1kHz resulting from
an equal mix of 19 and 20kHz tones at
200W peak into 4 ohms lying at -86dB
(0.006%).

Other than the slight shortfall in
maximum power output, the Moon
Evolution 860A lives up to Simaudio's
reputation for excellent audio engi-
neering. —John Atkinson

Fig.9 Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A, HF inter-
modulation spectrum, DC-24kHz, 19+20kHz at
200W peak into 4 ohms (linear frequency scale).

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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SIMAUDIO MOON EVOLUTION 860A

playing, but the sense of air rushing into the reeds and out
the bells— more clearly, and with greater dimension, than I
had before.

The clear dynamics of percussion instruments also came
through in ways much less subtle. I don’t know how many
times I’ve Hstened to the wondrous Music Matters Jazz
45rpm reissue of Eric Dolphy’s classic Out to Lunch (2 LPs,
45rpm, Blue Note/Music Matters Jazz MMBST-84163),
but I’d never before heard the full range of drummer Tony
Williams’s rhythms, subrhythms, and counter-rhythms—
some boisterous, some quiet and subtle. Ditto Elvin Jones’s
implosive, virtuosic brushwork in “You Are So Beautiful,”
from a reissue of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (LP,
Impulsel/Speakers Corner AS-40).

But I fear I’m giving the wrong impression of the 860A.
What impressed me most wasn’t the subterranean clarity
of a bass line or the crisp sizzle of a cymbal (which merely
filled a shortfall that I’d heard with previous Simaudio
amps). What most impressed me, as it had with the 740P,
was my sheer pleasure of Hstening to music. Nothing stood
out artificially; everything was clear and distinct and real, but
also balanced.

Listening to Duke Ellington’s Masterpieces by Ellington,
in Analogue Productions’ reissue of Columbia Records’
aptly titled sonic jaw-dropper (LP, APJ4418; SACD/CD,
APJ4418-SA), I could more clearly hear the horn players
really blow when they played, and take a breath when they
paused, and I could hear the pressure of Wendell Marshall’s
fingers on the neck of his bass. (Yes, this is a 1950 mono
recording, but check it out. If you can find a Columbia
original pressing in good shape, and g’luck on that, it sounds
better still, though I doubt you’ll find one that’s anywhere
near as quiet as this reissue.)

In Michael Tilson Thomas’s magnificent rendering
of Mahler’s Symphony 9 (2 SACD/CDs, San Francisco
Symphony 821936-0007-2), the subtle hesitations of those
silky vioHns, the clarion trumpets, the chirping flutes and
woody reeds, the effortless swelling of the crescendos— this
is what high-end audio is all about. Switching gears entirely:
In Yes’s “I’ve Seen All Good People: Your Move,” from the
sonically excellent soundtrack album for Almost Famous (CD,
DreamWorks 0044-50279-2), I heard more space between
instruments, more 3D heft to the background singers, more
air in the flutes, harder strums on guitar, more constant
rhythmic oomph in the bass drum— and all of it stayed rock
steady as the organ got real loud.

Let’s not neglect how the 860A laid out a soundstage.
Those clarion trumpets in Mahler’s 9th were way, way back
there, yet they carved as sharp an image as the chirping
flutes and woody reeds upfront— and I mean naturally sharp,
not Etch A Sketch artifice. From the recent gatefold reissue
of Blue (LP, Reprise/Rhino 74842), which sounds better
than the original in nearly every way, Joni Mitchell’s voice
seemed to belt, croon, and breathe right in front of me, and
all her musicians were nearly visible, to the left, right, and
behind her. Wide width, deep depth, 3D imaging: to the
extent a recording and the rest of my equipment could toss
up this illusion in my Hving room, the 860A could too.

The comparison

I do have one caveat. Midway through my listening, John
Atkinson let me borrow the Pass Labs XA60.5 monoblocks.
When I’d reviewed the Simaudio 740P preamp, JA had lent
me the Pass XP-30 line-stage preamplifier (reviewing it in

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

Analog Source VPI Classic turntable & JMW tonearm,
Ortofon Cadenza Blue cartridge.

Digital Source Krell Cipher SACD/CD player.
Preamplification Nagra BPS battery-powered phono stage;
Simaudio Moon Evolution 740p and Pass Laboratories XP-
30 line stages.

Power Amplifiers Pass Laboratories XA60.5 monoblocks.
Integrated Amplifier Simaudio Moon Evolution 700i.
Loudspeakers Revel Ultima Studio2.

Cables Interconnect & Speaker: Nirvana. AC: manufactur-
ers' own.

Accessories Bybee Technologies Signature power con-
ditioner (not for power amp, only sometimes for other
components); AC power from dedicated 20A circuits;
Audiodesksysteme Glass record cleaner; LAST stylus
cleaners. — Fred Kaplan

the April 2013 issue, he likened it to the proverbial straight-
wire-with- volume-knob), to help me gauge how closely the
740P approached the final word in transparency. In some
ways, it was an unfair match— the Pass costs 75% more than
the Simaudio— but an illuminating one. Though the 740P
was— and, I think, still is— a world-beater in its price range
(I did say that I bought one, right?), it turned out not to be
quite the last word in the universe of preamps; the XP-30
lit up a shghtly deeper soundstage, revealed still more air
between instruments, and sported a wider palette of colors.

So I thought it might be interesting to put the Simaudio
860A power amp up against a Pass Labs model as well— this
one a more even match, as the XA60.5s (at $11, 000/pair) are
a hit cheaper than the 860A ($15,000). The results this time
weren’t so clear-cut. The Passes exuded a purer midrange:
pianos sounded richer, violins silkier, with more extended
highs. However, the Simaudio was the champ for dynamics,
bass tautness, inner detail, and rhythmic rightness.

I’m not entirely clear what to make of these observations.

I also hstened to the Pass amps through the Simaudio 740P
preamp— so does this mean that the 740P delivered the mid-
range richness, but the 860A couldn’t amplify it with fiill
fidelity— or was the XA60.5, perhaps by design, embelHshing
that area of the audioband? I didn’t hsten to the Passes for
long enough to tell.

Another question, at the moment unanswerable: Were
the 860A’s strengths in bass, dynamics, and so forth intrinsic
products of Simaudio’s design— or was it simply that the
860A had more watts per channel (200 vs 60) and a higher
damping factor (up to 800 vs 150)? Of course, the latter, too,
would be the result of design choices. More probing of this
point to come, perhaps.

The Conclusion

Comparisons— especially these tentative, inconclusive ones—
aside, my time with the Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A
was a deep pleasure. I’ve now heard several models from
this company, and if an audio brand can be characterized
by a sound, Simaudio’s tends to be neutral, with a slight tilt
toward warmth— a sound that appeals to my own taste. The
860A peeled back another thin layer toward neutrahty with
a warmth that seemed still more natural, and not the side
effect of second-order distortion or some other artifact. ■

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HERB REICHERT

Falcon Acoustics LSs/sa

LOUDSPEAKER

W hen all you’ve ever heard are wooden boxes
that shout, it’s difficult to recognize their
highly accented “voice.” Few of us actually
notice how miserably distorted all loud-
speakers are. Don’t believe me? Try listening to a recording
of your child’s voice, the sounds of rattling keys, or an audi-
ence applauding.

After you’ve spent a bunch of time with horns, electro-
stats, or ribbons, box speakers won’t sound “boxy,” as many
reviewers claim; they’ll just sound squawky and . . . peculiar.
To my ears, the bigger and heavier a speaker cabinet, the
more peculiar it sounds. In contrast, petite boxes, like that of
Falcon Acoustics’ new re-creation of the British Broadcast-
ing Corporation’s classic LS3/5a, have a way of sounding
closer to solitary drivers hanging in thin air— ie, more open
and invisible— than ultradamped, 250-lb, tower-monoUth
speakers, which, on a gray and humid day, can sound an aw-
ful lot like moaning, wheezing piles of wood.

This spanking-new incarnation of the BBC’s LS3/5a' is
a highly artisanal labor of love and pride manufactured in
Oxfordshire, England, under the technical supervision of
KEF’s first employee and Falcon Acoustics’ retired founder,
Malcolm Jones, and the inspired passion of Jones’s old friend
and Falcon’s present owner, Jerry Bloomfield. When I asked
Bloomfield how this entire what’s-old-is-new-again-let’s-
do-it-right-this-time Falcon LS3/5a thing got started, he
laughed. “Boardroom curries and lots of wine!”

After Jones’s wife died, in 2008, he and Bloomfield began
meeting at a local curry joint to have dinner, drink wine, and
swap audio war stories. While at KEF, Jones had been the
senior development engineer behind the BllO, a 127mm
Bextrene-cone woofer, and the T27, a 19mm Mylar-dome
tweeter. Both units were used in the original BBC LS3/5a
minimonitor in the mid-1970s. So it’s no surprise that their
conversations often touched on that legendary British classic
and its many BBC-licensed incarnations. Way back in 1982,
Jones and Falcon had applied to the BBC for a Hcense to
manufacture the LS3/5a, but lost out to Goodmans— who
ended up using very tight-spec crossovers supplied by Falcon.

An LS3/5a Timeline

1974: The first pair of LS3/5a Grade II (limited low fre-
quency) minimonitors was created by the BBC Research
Department at Kingswood Warren in Surrey, south of Lon-
don. Looking totally unprepossessing, each had on its rear
panel a Httle strip of red plastic (from an embossing-type
label maker) that said “LS3/5a 001” or “LS3/5a 002.”^ The
BBC made 20 more pairs of these “prototypes” in-house,

1 See www.stereophile.com/content/praise-classic-bbc-ls35a and www.stereo-
phile.com/standloudspeakers/361/index.html.

2 H.D. Harwood, M.E. Whatton, and R.W. Mills, “The Design of the Miniature
Monitoring Loudspeaker Type LS3/5A,” BBC Research Department Report
1976/29 (October 1976): http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1976-29.pdf.

SPECIFICATIONS

Description Two-way, stand-
mounted, infinite-baffle loud-
speaker. Drive-units; 0.75"
(19mm) Mylar-dome tweeter,
5" (127mm) Bextrene-cone
mid/woofer. Frequency
range: 70Hz-20kHz. Sensitiv-
ity: 83dB/2.83V/m. Nominal

impedance: 15 ohms.
Dimensions 11.9" (304mm)
H by 7.4" (190mm) W by
6.4" (165mm) D. Weight:
11.8 lbs (5.35kg).

Finishes Cherry, Walnut;
additional charge for Elm,
Rosewood, Yew.

Serial numbers of units
reviewed 00124A Si B.

Price $2195/pair.
Approximate number of
dealers: Sold direct via
www.LS35adirect.com.
Manufacturer Falcon Acous-
tics, Mallories, Pound Lane,

Stanton St. John, Oxfordshire
0X33 IMF, England . Tel: (44)
(0)1865-358001. Web:
www.falconacoustics.co.uk.
US distributor: Big Ear Con-
sulting, Ormond Beach, FL.
Tel: (800) 752-4018.

Web: www.LS35adirect.com.

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FALCON ACOUSTICS LS3/5A

and put them in service in television broadcast vans. They
then invited a group of outside manufacturers to apply for
licenses to manufacture them.

The BBC issues no more than three manufacturing
licenses for the LS3/5a at a time, but during the speaker’s
long life rights to manufacture it have been awarded to
Audiomaster, ChartweU, Harbeth, KEF, Rogers, Spendor,
Stirling Broadcast, and now Falcon Acoustics.

According to Trevor Butler, writing in the March 1990
issue of the British magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Re-
view, “The concept of this speaker was to suit those BBC
environments where monitoring on headphones was not
satisfactory and yet there wasn’t sufficient room for a ‘Grade
r [full-range] monitor. A Grade I monitor can be used for
critical tonal balancing of programme material, setting of
microphone positioning, etc. Current Grade I monitors are
the LS5/8 and LS5/9. A grade II monitor may be used for
checking the quality of programme, but balance and [mike]
positioning are normally Grade I-checked unless there is no
alternative.”^

British audiophiles immediately grasped the special vir-
tues of this diminutive speaker, the first-ever “minimonitor”
to take the bookshelf speaker off the bookshelf and set it on
metal stands out in the room. According to Sound&Vision’s
Mike Trei, “This is when the term ‘bookshelf speaker’ began
to lose its literal meaning.” No speaker before it had ever
imaged as well. The BBC LS3/5a became the gateway drug
that started the whole soundstage/imaging audiophile revo-
lution. It was the speaker that, along with a workforce of
high-quality, low-powered British integrated amps, turned
all those 250W Pioneer receivers into polished dinosaurs.
Simultaneously, it helped precipitate the second coming of
tube amps. Now, after 40 years of continuous production,
the LS3/5a is established as a timeless classic, and an iconic
worldwide cult obsession."*

Jerry Bloomfield busy 1988 : As time passed, more and

or* Control (SP1003 version) Bex-

and pair matching. ^ene woofers began falling off spec,

which prompted KEF to redesign the
entire speaker using a new BllO mid/woofer, the SP1228.
This change required a redesign of the crossover and,
suddenly, in 1988, a new, 11-ohm version of the LS3/5a
appeared.

2000 : KEF stopped manufacturing the T27 and BllO
drive-units used in the LS3/5a. In order to continue making
licensed LS3/5a’s, Stirling Broadcast began using drivers
sourced from SEAS and Scan-Speak. Stirling’s new mid/
woofers were made of damped polypropylene, not Bex-
trene, and the original T27 Mylar tweeter was replaced by

3 Trevor Butlei; “The Little Legend,” Hi-Fi News & Record Review, March 1990:
www.g4dcv.co.uk/ls35a/legend.html.

4 See “The Unofificial LS3/5A Support Site,” www.ls35a.com.

MEASUREMENTS

I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system
and a calibrated DPA 4006 mi-
crophone to measure the Falcon
LS3/5a's frequency response in
the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40
for the nearfield response. The Falcon’s
voltage sensitivity was 0.7dB higher
than that of my 1978 pair of Rogers
LS3/5a's, at 83.2dB/2.83V/m. Its plot
of impedance magnitude and phase
(fig.1) was very similar to that of the
original,' with the magnitude remain-
ing above 8 ohms from 10Hz to 7kHz.
However, it was, on average, about 2
ohms lower in the region covered by
the tweeter.

I investigated the vibrational
behavior of the cabinet with a plastic-
tape accelerometer and the speaker
supported on upturned cones, which
allows resonances to fully develop.

I found a single high-level resonant
mode on the side panels at 355Hz
(fig.2) — identical to what I found on

some of the earlier versions of the
LS3/5a.

The impedance peak of 80 ohms
centered on 76Hz in fig.1 suggests that
76Hz is the tuning frequency of the
sealed enclosure, which is identical to
the Harbeth and the 1978 and 1989
samples of the Rogers LS3/5a's that
I've tested. With the woofer's output
measured in the nearfield (fig.3, black
trace below 300Hz), this frequency

Fig.1 Falcon LS3/5a, electrical impedance (solid)
and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).

corresponds with where the driver's
output is down by 6dB, but it can be
seen in fig.3 that the woofer's response
peaks by about the same 6dB in the
upper bass. This is the classic "LS3/5a
bump," which gives the impression that
this little speaker produces more bass
than it actually does. However, this
bump will make the speaker sensitive

1 See fig.1 at www.stereophile.com/content/bbc-
ls35a-loudspeaker-1989-measurements.

Fig.2 Falcon LS3/5a, cumulative spectral-decay
plot calculated from output of accelerometer fas-
tened to center of sidewall (MLS driving voltage to
speaker, 7.55V; measurement bandwidth, 2kHz).

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FALCON ACOUSTICS LS3/5A

a fabric dome. These radical changes made it necessary for
Derek Hughes to develop a crossover that would allow the
new drivers to “mimic” the response of the original KEF
LS3/5a.

2013 : Besides wine and curry, Jones and Bloomfield’s
post-retirement dinner sessions included discussions of how
all the later incarnations of the LS3/5a, while still falling
within the BBC’s specs, had drifted far from the original
materials and construction practices. The new versions may
measure the same, but to the ears of Jones and Bloomfield
(and me), they don’t sound at all the same. (I can see all you
double-bhnd-Hstening dudes punching in codes and scram-
bling your F-16s.)

But stop! I need to interrupt this story to tell you that, ac-
cording to a 2001 listening panel conducted by Ken Kessler
and Steve Harris, who pubhshed the results in Hi-Fi News,
NONE of the mass-produced versions of the LS3/5a has
come even close to the sonic perfection of the original, red-
tape-labeled prototypes.®

So . . . after some extra-good curry and more than enough
wine, Jones and Bloomfield decided to see if a couple of
“old farts” (Bloomfield’s description) could hunker down
“in a shed” (ditto) and re-create that lost red-label perfec-
tion. “We wanted to recapture the original sound character as
well as the soul of the BBC-labeled prototype,” Bloomfield
told me. Unlike other LS3/5a manufacturers, theirs was not
only a quantitative approach of matching the original specs,
but also a qualitative approach. Jones and Bloomfield wanted
to make a locally handcrafted loudspeaker that was better
controlled for quality, and closer to the materials used in
the original BBC prototypes, than any of the 60,000 or so
LS3/5a’s that had been manufactured to date.

They began with the BllO woofer, and went to tedious
lengths to get the doped Bextrene to produce spectral-

analysis results identical to the original’s.
Then they tried to make a precise facsimile
of the first T27 Mylar tweeter. When, in
2013, they applied to the Beeb for their
current license, BBC execs stared in aston-
‘new” drivers and said, “We haven’t seen any
like these in 40 years!” DupHcating the original crossover,
inductors, wooden cabinet, and damping were smaller
challenges— Falcon Acoustics has been manufacturing these
items to high specs since 1982.

Listening

How deep does the low-end response of the Falcon Acous-
tics LS3/5a ($2195/pair) actually go? And how accurate are
these new Grade II monitors?

5 Ken Kessler, “The Hi Fi News LS3/5A Shootout,” Hi-Fi News,]\m.e 2001: www.
g4d.cv.co.uk/ls35a/shootout.html.

Falcon LS3/5a
crossover
component pair
matching and
assembly.

ishment at the

measurements, continued

to excessive boundary reinforcement
when not used in free space.

Higher in frequency in fig.3, the
black trace shows the Falcon's farfield
response averaged across a 30°
horizontal window centered on the
tweeter axis. As with all versions of the
LS3/5a,^ a narrow peak in the upper
midrange disturbs an otherwise rela-
tively uniform response. Falcon's ver-
sion of the original's KEF T27 tweeter

Frequency in Hz

Fig.3 Falcon LS3/5a, anechoic response on tweeter
axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window
and corrected for microphone response, with
nearfield woofer response plotted below 300Hz.

produces several narrow peaks in the
octave above 15kHz, and the top two
octaves are shelved up a little. Fig.4,
taken with pink noise on the tweeter
axis, compares the in-room response
of the Falcon LS3/5a (red trace) with
one of my 1978 Rogers examples
(blue). The low-frequency outputs
are Identical, but the Falcon's upper-
midrange peak is more pronounced
and, overall, the 2015 speaker has
2-3dB more output in the treble. This

Flg.4 Falcon LS3/5a (red) and 1978 Rogers LS3/5a
(blue), in-room responses on tweeter axis, lOOHz-
20kHz, at 50" with pink noise (5dB/vertical div.)

explains the Falcon's greater measured
sensitivity.

The Falcon LS3/5a's plot of lateral
dispersion (fig.5) looks complex, but
this is mainly due to the small dips in
the on-axis response tending to fill in to
the speaker's sides. However, the broad
depression in the presence region off
axis might make the speaker sound a
little polite. In the vertical plane (fig.6),

2 See fig.3 at www.stereophile.com/content/bbc-
ls35a-loudspeaker-stirling-measurements.

Fig.5 Falcon LS3/5a, lateral response family at 50",
normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back
to front: differences in response 90-5° off axis,
reference response, differences in response 5-90°
off axis.

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FALCON ACOUSTICS LS3/5A

Wanting to get all such reviewer questions out of the
way with the very first record, I figured my best chance was
to play Charlie Haden/Jim Hall, recorded live at the 1990
Montreal Jazz Festival, in which the late bassist provides the
late guitarist with Bach-like counterpoint (CD, Impulse!
002176502). The theme of this astonishing album is Avant-
Garde Bass Meets Mainstream Jazz Guitar— ifs a twisting,
turning, surprise-filled masterpiece that features Haden’s
bowed, gut-stmng bass. Hall’s reverberant D’Aquisto arch-
top, and lots of applause. By the end of Ornette Coleman’s
“Turnaround,” I knew: The famous LS3/5a “bass bump”
was either missing in action, or chose to sleep through this
stupefying recording. For better or worse, the LS3/5a’s
equally famous IkHz “rise” was present. Bass notes and
guitar reverb were rich and hyperdetailed, and reached low
enough to be completely satisfying. Most speakers make
applause sound like rain on a roof Through the Falcons, the
applause in Montreal sounded as much like the smacking
together of hands made of actual bones and flesh as I have
ever heard from a pair of speakers. My Falcon LS3/5a jour-
ney was off to an auspicious start.

Forget sissy foot tapping. I believe completely in the value
of involuntary lap dmmming, head bobbing, and ecstatic fist
pumping. These actions signify that I am in sync with the
music, that I got my ears wide open and my mojo workin’.
And when I find myself synced up and delirious, I play the
same records over and over. (Yes, I was that neighbor you
hated.) I’ve been playing, over and over, David Byrne’s Eno-
produced score for Twyla Tharp’s The Catherine Wheel (LP,
Sire 3645), and especially the penultimate two tracks, “What
a Day That Was” and “Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide
Open).” I used the new Vinnie Rossi LIO integrated ampli-
fier (review to come), and when I got to the “(Eyes Wide

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

Analog Sources Acoustic Signature WOW XL turntable &
TA-1000 tonearm, Thorens TD-124 turntable; Abis SA 1.2
tonearm; Ortofon CG 25 Dl II, Shure SC35C, Soundsmith
Carmen, Zu Audio DL-103 cartridges.

Digital Sources Onkyo Integra DPS-7.2 DVD-A player;

Line Magnetics LM502 CA, Halide HD DACs; Mac mini
computer.

Preamplification Intact Audio step-up transformer;

April Sound GB-1, LFD LE, Sentec EQ-11 phono stages.
Integrated Amplifiers Hegel Music Systems H160, Line
Magnetics LM518 lA, Simaudio Moon Neo 340i, Vinnie
Rossi LIO.

Loudspeakers Rogers LS3/5a, Magnepan .7, Totem
Acoustic Model One Signature.

Headphone Amplifier Schiit Asgard.

Headphones Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, Bowers &
Wilkins P5, Music Hall de-be.

Cables Interconnect: Auditorium 23; AudioQuest Big Sur,
Cinnamon, Golden Gate. Speaker: AudioQuest Type 4,
Auditorium 23, Kimber Kable 8TC. AC: manufacturers' own.
Accessories Sound Anchor stands.— Herb Reichert

This spanking-new incarnation
of the BBC’s LSg/sa is a highly
artisanal labor of love and pride
manufactured in Oxfordshire,
England.

measurements, continued

a large suckout develops in the cross-
over region immediately below the
tweeter axis. In addition, a little more
energy is present between 1 and 4kHz
between 5° and 10° above the tweeter
axis. Both of these factors suggest that
the Falcon LS3/5a will work better on a
low than on a high stand.

Turning to the time domain, the
Falcon's step response on the tweeter
axis (fig.7) is basically identical to
those of the earlier versions of the
LS3/5a, with the tweeter connected in

Fig.6 Falcon LS3/5a, vertical response family at
50", normalized to response on tweeter axis, from
back to front: differences in response 45-5° above
axis, reference response, differences in response
5-45° below axis.

inverted acoustic polarity, the woofer
in positive polarity. However, a promi-
nent ripple in the decay of the woofer's
step correlates with the pronounced
ridge of resonant energy centered just
above 1kHz in the Falcon's cumulative
spectral-decay plot (fig.8). The LS3/5a
has always sounded a touch nasal, but,
all things being equal, from this I would
have expected the Falcon's version to
sound more nasal than the original
version. (HR did comment on the re-
sponse rise in the upper midrange.)

Fig.7 Falcon LS3/5a, step response on tweeter axis
at 50" (5ms time window, 30kHz bandwidth).

Overall, its measured behavior indi-
cates that Falcon Acoustics' re-creation
of this classic British minimonitor has
been very successful. The company
has resisted the temptation to "im-
prove" the sound quality, but has also
managed to re-create what made the
speaker great in the first place — unlike,
for example, the unauthorized Gini Sys-
tems version that John Marks reviewed
in December 2008.^— John Atkinson

3 See www.stereophile.com/
standloudspeakers/1208gini/index.html.

Fig.8 Falcon LS3/5a, cumulative spectral-decay
plot on tweeter axis at 50" (0.15ms risetime).

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

FALCON ACOUSTICS LS3/5A

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Open)” part I babbled like a fiend in
a forest. My feet stomped, my head
swayed back and forth, my fists pound-
ed— and at the end, when the synths
kicked in, my cheeks were soaked with
tears. “See the little girl with her eyes
rolled back in her head . . .”

These little speakers didn’t just open
my ears. True to their legendary status
as the first box speaker that could
actually image, the Falcon LS3/5a’s
projected— on a spectacularly big, airy
soundstage— crystalhne images that
were sharp and sweet. Big orchestral
recordings were so gigantic I could
feel the expanding kettledrum waves
tickling the walls of concert halls.

Bright emitting tubes

I’ve had the Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a’s
for several months and have powered
them with every amp in the house.
They played eryoyably well with all—
with one exception. Class-D made
these hyper-responsive, 15-ohm speak-
ers sound dry, slightly hard, and more
generalized than I Hke. Class-D amps
awoke that napping bass bump and
turned the sKghtly rising treble into
a distraction. The LS3/5a has always
been an exceptionally amp-friendly
speaker, not because it makes mediocre
amps sound good, but for quite the
opposite reason: The LS3/5a excels at
letting you hear exactly what your amp
really sounds like.

Like all previous LS3/5a’s, the
Falcons sang their best with lower-
powered class-A or class-AB amps. A
supersweet, unusually liquid-sounding,
class-AB MOSFET amp— such as the
25Wpc Vinnie Rossi LIO integrated—
could bring this antique design into
the 21st century. The Falcon-Rossi
combo dehvered lively, grainless magic,
and showed me just how neutral and
“invisible” these minimonitors could
be. But . . .

Like dogs begging for treats, what
the 15-ohm Falcons really wanted was a
tube amp with a 16-ohm tap.

The Falcon LSg/sa
served as a powerful
reminder of the
joys and beauties
that a simple,
accurate, easy-to-
drive loudspeaker
can provide.

My 22Wpc Line Magnetic LM518
LA amp, with its 845 tubes, responded
perfectly to that desire. The minute I
hooked it up, the Falcon’s tone colors
doubled in saturation. Steve Davis of
Big Ear Consulting, Falcon Acoustics’
US importer, says he uses a PrimaLuna
DiaLogue Premium EL34 power amp,
which— unlike PrimaLuna’s DiaLogue
Premium HP integrated, reviewed
by Robert Deutsch in Stereophiie in
December 2014^— has 16-ohm taps.

I’ve used my 30-year-old Rogers
LS3/5a’s (serial nos. 23035A/B) with
single-ended 300B and push-pull 2A3
amps and have never felt a need for
more juice. I didn’t have one to try
for this review, but every push-pull,
6BQ5/EL84 amphfier I used sounded
LSD-spiderweb spectacular! Push-pull
6L6/5881 tubes + LS3/5a is a classic
combo I can almost guarantee you’ll
enjoy. Meanwhile, my Line Magnetic
LM518 LA tubed amp made such rich,
strong, fantastically detailed, super-
lively sound that I used it for all of the
listening described below.

The scene was rockin'

Remember 7" 45s? Remember Bobby
“Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash”
(Garpax 45-44167), originally released
in October 1962? As I hunkered down
in my candlelit Bed-Stuy bunker, the
surreal vision of the Line Magnetics’
thoriated-tungsten-bright emitters
and the vivid sounds of Boris and his
Crypt-Kickers took mesmerizing hold
of me. This is a weird recording. The
drum kit is strangely small and distant,
but the boiling, bubbling beaker hangs
directly in front of my face. Pickett’s
voice was more richly toned and
tangible than I ever dreamed possible.
Even the little drum kit sounded quite
real.

Countless times I have played a
mono recording of Vladimir Horowitz
attacking Beethoven’s best-known pi-

6 See www.stereophile.com/content/primaluna-
dialogue-premium-hp-integrated-amplifier.

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

ano sonata, “Moonlight,” Op.27 No.2
in c#, with full-tilt romantic vigor (LP,
RCA LM-2009). Each time, I hear
something new. With the Falcons and
Ortofon’s CG 25 DI II cartridge, I
discovered a meteor shower of starthng
dynamic contrasts. A couple of times I
felt as if flashbulbs were going off. The
Falcon LS3/5a is less than a foot tall,
but the pair of them gave Horowitz’s
piano a vivid, large-scale presence. Mi-
crocontrasts and microdynamics were
as good as I could imagine. When
I played this recording through the
KEF LS50s— designed in homage to
the LS3/5a— they couldn’t match the
Falcons’ light-speed-free expression,
transparency, or tonal purity.

Not long ago, a friend played me
McLemore Avenue, Booker T. & the
M.G.’s mostly instrumental riff on the
Beatles’ Abbey Road (LP, Stax STS-
2027). It sounded so smooth, hquid,
and Hammond B3 colorhil, I felt I
was sHding along a greasy Memphis
sidewalk in 1970. My friend’s hi-fi is
beyond eccentric. It includes an old
SoundCraftsman equahzer and some
PP-6L6-powered Ampex “suitcase”
speakers, and it made McLemore sound
like a reference recording to die for.
Once I got my head outa the back
cover— it shows a dranken black man
ogling a white chick’s legs— I realized
that every rhythm change, every snare
pop, every Donald “Duck” Dunn bass
riff was dripping in irony and sarcasm.
By the time I made it through the
three Beatles medleys on side 1, 1 was
convinced that I had to go home and
buy this LP on eBuy—that night.

When my “Near Mint” Stax beauty
arrived, I immediately played it. It
sounded like crap. The tone was sour.
The rhythms were not ironically funky.
I was already writing for Stereophile, so
occasionally, after installing a new amp
or speakers, I would pull out McLemore
Avenue to hear if it sounded better. It
never did.

Until right now. Listening to it
and looking at the cover, I feel as if
I’m seeing the whole of 1960s white
America through the eyes and heart of
a black man. In reverie, I’m stand-
ing on the corner of East McLemore
and College Avenues. I can see Stax’s
“SOULSVILLE USA” sign, and I
finally understand what I was once too
young to grasp. Why is my mind sud-
denly opening up? Because the Falcon
LS3/5as are doing their righteous
thing.

Today, McLemore Avenue sounds way

FALCON ACOUSTICS LS3/5A

better— and much less distorted— than
it did at my friend’s house. Steve Crop-
per’s guitar is alive, talking beautifully
and tangibly present. Booker T. is
holding a B3 chord until I completely
grasp its meaning. The Human Time-
keeper (Al Jackson Jr.) is pounding
it down for human rights. And the
Falcons are demonstrating that Mem-
phis soul always sounds best, and box
speakers always sound their least pecu-
liar, when the tonal balance and boogie
factor are sly, sultry, and right on!

Conclusions

I felt a little naive for even attempting
to tell this story. At this point, there’s
precious httle to debate or describe
about the merits of the BBC LS3/5a
minimonitor design. And surely, the
world doesn’t need yet another long
review of yet another licensed incarna-
tion of it. The only relevant question
is whether or not Falcon Acoustics’
LS3/5a is better than earlier LS3/5a’s
in some unmeasurable but listener-tangi-
ble way. Could this 21st-century incar-
nation, made by a couple of old farts,
possibly play music more accurately or
more enjoyably than my 30-year-old
Rogers LS3/5a’s, and all the Harbeth,
Spendor, Chartwell, etc. iterations that
came before it?

I doubt I’m qualified to fully answer
that question— I haven’t heard them aU.
But I do know that the Falcons make
my old Rogerses sound a tad drowsy
and fuzzy, like a cartridge with too
many miles on it. (Perhaps I’m respond-
ing to a fresh tweeter with a slightly
stronger response.) The Falcon is hveher
and sings more clearly than any other
LS3/5a I’ve heard. To my ears, this
new, hypercrafted edition seems more
“invisible,” better toned, less “miser-
ably” distorted or “peculiar” sounding,
than any other moderately priced loud-
speaker I’ve used in my home— ever.

The Falcon LS3/5a has returned me
to my roots, and served as a power-
ful reminder of the joys and beauties
that a simple, accurate, easy-to-drive
loudspeaker coupled to a charming
low-powered amplifier can provide.

I never experienced the original
red-tape BBC prototypes. I can only
imagine what they may have sounded
like. But I’ve used and eijoyed many
different variations of the LS3/5a, and
can say, with relative Herbcertainty
that the Falcon Acoustics might just be
the best production LS3/5a ever made.
Only time and the legions of LS3/5a
faithful can say for sure. ■

Can a $49 insect make all your
CD files sound better than Hi Res?

Yes and no: Using the same equipment and
a quality DAC, a 24/96 file (for example) will
always sound better than a CD 16/44.1 file
... but, even a single JitterBug will often
allow a CD file to bo more musical and more
emotionally stimulating than a Hi-Ros file
without the benefit of a JitterBug.

Noise is the problem. Real noise — the kind
you can’t hear directly. Most often, the word
'noise' is used to describe tape hiss or a
scratch on a record, but these sounds aren't
noise; they are properly reproduced sounds
that we wish weren't there.

Problem noise is essentially random, resonant
or parasitic energy, which has no meaning.
It can't be turned into discrete sounds, but
It does compromise signal integrity and the
performance of everything it touches.
JitterBug's dual-function line-conditioning
circuitry greatly reduces the noise and ringing
that plague both the data and power lines of
USB ports, whether on a computer, streamer,
home stereo or car audio front-panel USB input

A single JitterBug is used in between devices
(i.e.. in series) as shown below. For an
additional "wow" experience, try a second
JitterBug into another USB port on the same
device (such as a computer). Whether the
second port is vacant, or is feedi ng a pri nter or
charging a phone, JitterBug's noise-reduction
ability is likely to surprise you. No, the printer
won't be affected — only the audio!

While a JitterBug helps MP3s sound a lot
more like music, high-sample-rate files have
the most noise vulnerability. Try a JitterBug
or two on all your equipment, but never
more than two per USB bus. There is such a
thinq as too much of a good thing.

,juest

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

USHE

Behind the Scene

Dr. Joseph D'Appolito

MUSICAL

COMPREHENSION

MACHINE

EQUIPMENT REPORT

JON IVERSON

Rega Research DAC-R

D/A PROCESSOR

Ve spent the last month recording songs for a pal’s
upcoming album. His act consists of powerful female
and male singers, acoustic and electric bass, and acous-
tic guitars and mandolin. Jay-Z is binding the project,
which is destined to transform the entire hip-hop/rap beat-
driven pop landscape into an acoustic-music wonderland.

Okay, I jest about that last part.

Anyway, a couple weeks before recording started, Rega
Research’s new DAC-R ($1195) arrived for review, present-
ing me with a chance to compare what I was hearing live
in the studio with our recorded results played back in the
listening room. And because the group was recording a

SPECIFICATIONS

Description Solld-sate D/A
processor. Digital inputs:

USB: 24-bit 4.1/48/88.2/

96/ 176.4/192kHz. Optical/
TosLink 1: 24-bit 32/44.1/48/
88.2/96/176.4/192kHz.
Optical/TosLink 2: 24-bit
32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4
/ 192kHz. Coaxial 1: 24-bit
32/ 44.1/48/88.2/96/
176.4/192kHz. Coaxial 2:
24-bit 32/44.1/48/88.2/96/
176.4/192kHz. Bit resolution
(all inputs): 16 to 24-bit.
Supported data rates: 32,

44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4,
192kHz. Frequency response
(100k ohms load:) Filter 1
selected. Low data rate,
10Hz-20.02kHz, -O.OSdB
(44.1kHz), 10Hz-21.7kHz
-0.03dB (48kHz). Medium
data rate: 10Hz-28.7kHz,
-O.OSdB (88.2kHz),
10Hz-31.2kHz, -3dB
(96kHz). High data rate:
10Hz-44.1kHz, -O.OSdB
(176.4kHz) 10Hz-47.7kHz,
-3dB(192kHz).Maximum
output level: 2.17BV into

100k ohms load. Total
harmonic distortion, all
inputs (24/96): 0.006% at
1kHz. Signal/noise: -lOSdB,
relative to maximum output
level with a 100Hz-22kHz
bandwidth.

Dimensions 8.4" (21Smm)
Wby 3.1" (80mm)Hbyl2.S"
(320mm) D. Weight: 8.8 lbs
(4kg).

Serial number of unit
reviewed 11181 .

Price $119S. Approximate
number of dealers: not

disclosed.

Manufacturer

Rega Research, Ltd.,

6 Coopers Way, Temple
Farm Industrial Estate,
Southend on Sea, Essex,
England SS2 STE, UK.

Web: www.rega.co.uk.

US distributor: The Sound
Organisation, 11140 Petal
Street, Suite 3S0, Dallas, TX
7S238.

Tel: (972) 234-0182.

Fax: (972) 234-0249.

Web: www.soundorg.com.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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REGA RESEARCH DAC-R

second set of songs at Painted Sky, another studio nearer the
coast, in Harmony, California,* it was also an opportunity to
hear how the same people sounded when recorded in two
different places by two different sets of ears at about the
same time. Every few days, I received a CD with the latest
mixes from Painted Sky, which I could compare with what
we were getting here at Dog Bark. I thought. What could he
better than using live music as a reality check for a DAC?

Well, it got complicated. Although I and the other engi-
neer were both trying to capture the “reality” of the same
musicians and instruments in a live space, it quickly became
apparent that there’s more than one artistically vahd way to
do this.

The same is true, in a more subtle way, of designing a
DAC. Given that the final recording document the listener
buys is the final “reality,” DAC designers still have some
room in which to make choices and home in on the sound
they seek. And as in the studio, where choosing the right
microphone for a voice or guitar is an art, the designer
must decide between various chipsets, filters, power-supply
designs, clocking technologies, and so on, to fine-tune the
sound of his or her DAC.

In our sessions, the choices of mikes and mixes made in
the studio forever changed the reality recorded, but having
Christine singing right there, 6' away, did help me hear just
how well a given DAC was reproducing her voice. More

about this later.

The DAC-R

Outwardly, the DAC-R
looks very similar to Rega’s
previous DAC, called sim-
ply the DAC and reviewed
by Sam Tellig in the May 2011 issue.^ However, changes
have been made: The case is bit longer, which permits a
better layout for the power supply, and Rega tells me they’ve
made minor changes in the power cormector and improve-
ments in the firmware and hardware operation at 176.4kHz,
as well as to the power-up process. The price has risen by
$200, and you can now control the input and filter selections
via remote control.

The most significant change for computer-audio users is
that the DAC-R has an XMOS-based, 24/192 USB asyn-
chronous input. In his review four years ago, Sam quoted
Terry Bateman, Rega’s electronics design engineer, as saying
that Rega didn’t see USB “as a high-tier audio interface.”
Things change— the USB input stage now feeds the optical
and coaxial input stages via an isolating transformer, totally

1 Yes, this is actually the name of the town, in which one finds httle more than the
well-equipped Painted Sky Recording Studio and a pottery shop. Population: 18.
Perfect for music, yes?

2 See www.stereophile.com/content/rega-dac-da-processor.

The DAC-R
actually has six
filters, optimized
by sampling rate.

MEASUREMENTS

S uperficially, the DAC-R
looks identical to Rega's
original DAC, which Sam Tellig
reviewed in the May 2011
issue. However, the DAC-R replaces
the DAC's Burr-Brown PCM2707 USB
receiver chip with a higher-performing
XMOS chip. I measured the DAC-R
with my Audio Precision SYS2722 sys-
tem (see www.ap.com and the January
2008 "As We See It," http:/7tinyurl.
com/4ffpve4). Sources were S/PDIF on
TosLink and coaxial from the SYS2722,
and USB from my 2012 MacBook Pro
running on battery power. Macintosh's
USB Prober utility reported the Rega's
product string as "XMOS USB Audio

Fig.l Rega DAC-R, Filter 2, impulse response at
44.1kHz (4ms time window).

2.0," and confirmed that the USB port
operated in the optimal isochronous
asynchronous mode. Though specified
as being 192kHz capable, the TosLink
input locked to datastreams with
sample rates only up to 96kHz. How-
ever, Rega does warn, in the DAC-R's
manual, that TosLink connection above
96kHz will depend on the link used,
and I was using a cheap plastic TosLink
cable. The coaxial S/PDIF and USB
inputs operated correctly up to 192kHz.

The maximum output level at IkHz
was very similar to that of the original
Rega DAC,’ at 2.176V. The output
preserved absolute polarity and was
sourced from a fairly low impedance:

Flg.2 Rega DAC-R, Filter 1, wideband spectrum
of white noise at -4dBFS (left channel red, right
magenta) and 19.1kHz tone at OdBFS (left blue,
right cyan), with data sampled at 44.1kHz (20dB/
vertical div.).

595 ohms at high and middle frequen-
cies, rising inconsequentially to 663
ohms in the low bass. The impulse
response with Filter 1 (not shown)
is a conventional time-symmetrical,
linear-phase, half-band type; with
Filters 2 and 3, the impulse response is
a minimum-phase type, with all ringing
following the impulse (fig.l).

With 44.1kHz-sampled white noise
at -4dBFS, Filter 1 gave a rapid rolloff
above the audioband, reaching the
stopband noise floor at 24kHz (fig.2,
red and magenta traces), and sup-

1 Compare these measurements with those of the
original Rega DAC at www.stereophile.com/con-
tent/rega-dac-da-processor-measurements.

Fig.3 Rega DAC-R, Filter 3, wideband spectrum
of white noise at -4dBFS (left channel red, right
magenta) and 19.1kHz tone at OdBFS (left blue,
right cyan), with data sampled at 44.1kHz (20dB/
vertical div.).

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stereophile.com ■ August 2015

American

Handcrafted

Sound.

This is the PVC wire used in your amplifier
after heat exposure and aging

This is the Mil Spec Teflon wire
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REGA RESEARCH DAC-R

isolating the DAC from the host computer.

Inside are twin “Buffer-Stage-Driven” Wolfson
WM8742 DAC chips, but no upsampling. Bateman
explained to me that “The plan was to keep the
signal path as straightforward as possible and not
run the DAC ICs faster than the incoming sample
rate by means of a rate converter, thus complicat-
ing things.” He said that the same mo’ simple, mo’
betta approach goes for the clean analog signal path:
“I used the same discrete output amplifier I used
in the Saturn and Apollo [DACs], giving a drop of
old-school discrete transistor mojo.” Bateman also
said, “I have used good-quahty electrolytic and film
capacitors in the analog signal path. I paid atten-
tion to the power supplies for all stages, along with
the integrity of the data and clock signals running
throughout the unit.” In fact, there is a power sup-
ply for the control microcontroller, separate from
the digital and analog audio stages.

Physical Details

Rega’s DAC-R measures 8.4" wide by 3.1" high by 12.5"
deep and weighs 8.8 lbs, and feels as dense as a block of
stone. When tapped, its case does not ring anywhere. A
slight depression runs down the center of the top plate from
front to back, as if someone had pressed down a rolling pin
lengthwise and gently rocked it back and forth. So although
the DAC-R is essentially a rectangular box, it has pleasantly
sculpted feel.

Four large rubber feet on the bottom plate raise the
DAC-R about half an inch above whatever surface it sits

Outwardly, the DAC-i?
looks very similar to
Rega’s previous DAC.

on. It ran warm but never
hot in my cabinet, where its
case of aluminum, steel, and
glass projected an aura of no-
nonsense refinement. On the
DAC-R’s faceplate of highly reflective glass are three silver
buttons in a row, an IR sensor, and three sets of small red
LEDs. The power button, on the left, has a solid mechani-
cal feel when engaged; the other two buttons require only a
slight, brief tap. The center button selects among three fil-
ters (see below). To the right of it is a column of four LEDs
indicating the sample rate the DAC-R is locked to: 44.1-48,
88.2-96, 176.4, or 192kHz. To the right of those is the Input
button, surrounded by an arc of six LEDs indicating which
input has been selected (USB, 1-4), and Input Locked.

measurements, continued

pressing the ultrasonic image at 25kHz
of a full-scale tone at 19.1kHz by almost
llOdB (fig.2, blue, cyan).^ Filter 2 be-
haved virtually identically on this test,
though with lOdB greater suppression
of the 25kHz image (not shown). Filter
3 is specified as being an apodizing
type, and its output spectrum with
these signals (fig.3) confirmed that
spec, the ultrasonic rolloff reaching the
stopband noise floor at precisely half
the sample rate (fig.3, vertical green

Fig.4 Rega DAC-R, Filter 1, frequency response
at -12dBFS into 100k ohms with (data sampleid
at: 44.1kHz (left channel blue, right reid), 96kHz
(left green, right gray), 192kHz (left cyan, right
magenta) (IdB/vertical div.).

line). A more conventional plot of the
DAC-R's frequency response with
data sampled at 44.1, 96, and 192kHz
(fig.4) suggested that the ultrasonic
bandwidth was more restricted than
usual at the higher sample rates. With
96kHz data, for example, the response
is down by 6dB at 31kHz, which is very
similar to how the Rega DAC behaved.

Channel separation at IkHz was su-
perb, at 105dB R-L and 115dB L-R, these
respectively decreasing to 79 and

Fig.5 Rega DAC-R, spectrum with noise and
spuriae of dithered IkHz tone at -90dBFS with: 16-
bit data (left channel cyan, right magenta), 24-bit
data (left blue, right red) (20dB/vertical div.).

88dB at 20kHz due to the inevitable
capacitive coupling between channels.
The audioband noise floor was clean,
other than some very low-level spuriae
(around -123dB) at the power-supply
frequency of 60Hz and its odd-order
harmonics, these most likely due to
magnetic interference from the trans-
former.

These spuriae can be seen in fig.5,

2 This test was suggested to me by Jurgen Reis,
chief engineer of MBL.

Fig.6 Rega DAC-R, Filter 1, waveform of undithered
IkHz sinewave at -90.31dBFS, 16-bit data (left
channel blue, right red).

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

Which can make the biggest
difference in your sound?

Addressing how electrons flow in circuits, output devices, and cables?

Addressing the acoustic wave launch into your room and
how it is received at your seat?

It's not even close...

Fabulous electronics
and cables, in a system
poorly integrated with
the room, will most cer-
tainly NOT sound fabu-
lous. In fact, an average
amplifier with average
cables, but in a system
that is properly “Playing
the Room,” will exceed
the sound quality of a
more expensive and potentially higher
performing system.

Rethink your priorities and
hear your system soar sonically

There’s absolutely nothing wrong
with getting better gear, IF your sys-
tem has been optimized to reveal its
potential. Until then, you’re simply
throwing valuable money away.

Much better sound for much
less money?

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REGA RESEARCH DAC-R

On the rear panel, from left, are: the 24-bit/192kHz
USB input, two 24/192 optical inputs, two 24/192 S/PDIF
coaxial inputs, an optical digital output, an S/PDIF coaxial
output, and left/right analog RCA jacks. On the right are
the fuse bay and the lEC C13 power receptacle. This is a
no-frills DAC with no balanced connections, AES/EBU
input, DSD processing, or headphone jack.

Also included is a remote control that, though festooned
with buttons, is of little use. Only one of its 18 buttons, the
input selector, controls anything on the DAC-R. Rega’s
optional Solaris system remote ($125) includes a button for
switching among filters, along with a ton more buttons that
also have nothing to do with the DAC-R. I suppose this en-
courages “system” purchases, but it makes no sense for the
user whose only Rega component is a DAC-R A dedicated
remote with controls for only the DAC-R’s most important
functions. Input and Filter selection, would be much better,
and probably cheaper to make.

Filter Details

I love seeing a DAC with a reconstruction filter selector— it
lets the listener fine-tune the trade-offs of each slightly
compromised approach. The Rega DAC-R has three choices
of Filter setting, but each of these changes depending on
sampling rate. For sampling rates of 48kHz and under, they
are: Filter 1) Linear phase half-band, 2) Minimum phase
half-band, and 3) Minimum phase apodizing. For medium
and higher sampling rates (88.2-192kHz), the filters are: 1)
Linear phase soft-knee, 2) Minimum phase brickwaU, and 3)
Linear phase apodizing.

This means that the DAC-R actually has six filters, opti-

If you prefer your digital music with
a slight bit of warmth, but without
losing any of a recording’s details,
the Rega DAC-R is a DAC for your
short list.

mized by samphng rate. I didn’t reahze this at first, and was
a bit puzzled when I preferred Filter 1 with 44.1k material,
though not by much, but ended up definitely preferring
Filter 3 with high-resolution recordings. In the end, this
resulted in my leaving the setting on Filter 3, the apodizing
setting, most of the time.

I later learned that Bateman refers to the DAC-R’s three
Filter responses as “standard,” “extended,” and “gradual.” He
wrote to me: “The extended filter extends to the maximum
response allowed by the sample rate. The gradual filter rolls
off sooner than the standard filter.” So it turns out my pref-
erence was for a slightly rolled-off filter! We’ll see what John
Atkinson’s measurements reveal, but I stand by my choice,
made before Bateman sent his e-mail.

Setup Details

When first plugged into my computer’s USB port, the Rega
DAC-R came up in Audio Preferences as “XMOS USB 2.0
Audio Out.” I found that my MacBook Pro recognized the
USB connection from the DAC-R whether or not the Rega
was powered up, and that I was able to select sample rates
on the Mac even before powering up the DAC-R.

I also found that the Rega was around 1.5dB louder than

measurements, continued

which plots the DAC-R’s output spec-
trum as it reconstructs a dithered IkHz
tone at -90dBFS with first 16-bit data
(cyan and magenta traces), then 24-bit
data (blue, red). The increase in bit
depth drops the noise floor by 12dB or
so, suggesting that the DAC-R's resolu-
tion is C0 18 bits — easily enough for it
to correctly reproduce the stair-step
shape of an undithered tone at exactly
-90.31dBFS (fig.6). With undithered

Fig.7 Rega DAC-R, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave,
DC-lkHz, at OdBFS into 600 ohms (left channel
blue, right red; linear frequency scale).

24-bit data (not shown), the result was
a good if slightly noisy sinewave. These
last tests were performed with S/PDIF
data; repeating them with USB data
gave identical results, confirming that
the USB input correctly handles 24-bit
data.

Like Rega's DAC, the DAC-R offered
very low levels of harmonic distortion,
even into 600 ohms (fig.7). The second
and third harmonics are the highest in

Flg.8 Rega DAC-R, Filter 3, HF intermodulation
spectrum, DC-30kHz, 19+20kHz at OdBFS into
100k ohms, 44.1kHz data (left channel blue, right
red; linear frequency scale).

level, both lying a couple of dB above
-90dB (0.003%). Intermodulation
distortion was also extremely low
(fig.8). This graph was taken with Filter
3, which suppresses the 20kHz tone by
4dB. This will not audible, however.

Tested for its rejection of word-clock
jitter with 16-bit/44.1kHz J-Test data,
the DAC-R produced a spectrum very
similar to the Rega DAC’s (fig.9). While
the odd-order harmonics of the LSB-

Fig.9 Rega DAC-R, high-resolution jitter spectrum
of analog output signal, 11.025kHz at -6dBFS,
sampled at 44.1kHz with LSB toggled at 229Hz:
16-bit data via S/PDIF (left channel blue, right red).
Center frequency of trace, 11.025kHz; frequency
range, ±3. 5kHz.

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REGA RESEARCH DAC-R

the Other DACs on hand. So when I compared the DAC-R
with Benchmark’s DAC2 HGC, for example, I calibrated
the adjustments to ensure comparable listening levels. Also,
since I wanted to listen to the original 24/96 WAV-file
recordings we were making for my friend’s album directly
from the computer, I needed to connect my mix computer
and recording interface to the Rega via S/PDIR

I called Stephen Mejias at AudioQuest headquarters
(actually, I think he may have been home on the East Coast
when he answered the phone, wearing one of his ironic T-
shirt-and-hipster-jeans ensembles), and one credit-card debit
later, AQ’s best S/PDIF bulk cable and connectors were on
their way, to Hnk my main hstening room to my studio, 30'
away. Everything worked perfectly.

Music Details

When working with a new singer, one of the first things on
the agenda is to test different vocal mikes. We’ll record mul-
tiple passes with each mike and then, over the next few days,
do some listening. When I did this with the Rega DAC-R, it
was easy to hear each mike’s character, for better or worse.

Which brings me to the complicated part of this review.
Microphones color the sound, and engineers, artists, and
producers generally pick the colors they like for any situ-
ation. But in making these decisions, how do you know
you’re not hearing colorations produced by the rest of your
recording and/or monitoring system, added to or subtracted
from the mike’s colorations? Stories are legion of albums

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

Digital Sources Apple MacBook Pro computer (2.66GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) running OS
10.10.3, Audirvana Plus, iTunes 11.1.5, Sonic Studios Amarra
2.5, Songbird 1.9.3, XLD; Western Digital 2TB NAS device;
Oppo BDP-103 universal BD player; Meridian Digital Media
System (Control 15, QNAP TS-669 Pro NAS); Apple iPad
Air, iPod Touch IG, iPhone 6.

Digital Processors Benchmark DACl USB & DAC2 HGC,
AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC, Cambridge Audio Dac-
Magic XS.

Preamplifier Marantz AV7005 in Pure Direct Mode.

Power Amplifier Classe CAM 350 monoblocks (2).
Loudspeakers Main system: MartinLogan Prodigy &
BalancedForce 212 subwoofers (2). Desktop & recording
monitoring system: Emotiva 5, Velodyne Servo-F Series
subwoofer.

Cables: AudioQuest Victoria (DragonFly). Line: various
Kimber Kable, XLO HT Pro. USB: AudioQuest Diamond,
Cardas Clear. S/PDIF: AudioQuest HD6 Carbon (studio
to main listening room), Cardas Neutral Reference, XLQ.
Speaker: Kimber Kable BiFocal XL. AC: manufacturers’
own.

Accessories Dedicated 40A line (amplifiers), dedicated
15A lines (digital & analog components).— Jon Iverson

measurements, continued

level, low-frequency squarewave are all
close to their correct levels (Indicated
with the green line), there are side-
bands at +120 and ±240Hz.

In our review of the Rega DAC
in May 2011, 1 had ascribed these
sidebands to jitter, but I was incorrect.
The level of jitter-related sidebands
decreases as the frequency of the
signal described by the digital data
also decreases. But as you can see In
fig.lO, which compares the spectrum
of the DAC-R's output while It decodes
data representing a full-scale tone at
10kHz (blue and red traces) with that

Fig.10 Rega DAC-R, high-resolution spectrum,
2-12kHz, of analog output signal, lOkHz at OdBFS
(left channel blue, right retd), and of 6kHz tone at
OdBFS (left green, right gray); sampled at 44.1kHz,
24-bit data via S/PDIF (linear frequency scale).

of a full-scale 6kHz tone (green, gray),
the sidebands remain at the same
level with the low-frequency tone.

This suggests that these sidebands
are not jitter related, but are more
likely due to there being some 120Hz
leakage from the power supply on the
DAC chip’s voltage reference Input.
The level of the sidebands dropped
by lOdB for each lOdB reduction in
signal level, as can be seen in fig.11,
which plots the output spectra when
the level of the 6 and 10kHz tones
is reduced to -20dBFS. With tones
at -40dBFS, there are no sidebands

Fig.11 Rega DAC-R, high-resolution spectrum,
2-12kHz, of analog output signal, lOkHz at -20dBFS
(left channel blue, right red), and of 6kHz tone
at -20dBFS (left green, right gray); sampled at
44.1kHz, 24-bit data via S/PDIF (linear frequency
scale).

at all (fig.12). I conjecture that the
DAC-R’s power supply has too high an
impedance to fully isolate the DAC's
voltage reference input when the DAC
is reconstructing high-level analog
signals. How serious a problem is
this? Probably not very, though I did
wonder, with the earlier Rega DAC, if
this behavior correlated with both Sam
Tellig and Jon Iverson finding the DAC
to sound warm, even a touch heavy.

Other than that minor issue, the
Rega DAC-R offered measured perfor-
mance that was beyond reproach.

—John Atkinson

Fig.12 Rega DAC-R, high-resolution spectrum,
2-12kHz, of analog output signal, lOkHz at -40dBFS
(left channel blue, right red), and of 6kHz tone
at -40dBFS (left green, right gray); sampled at
44.1kHz, 24-bit data via S/PDIF (linear frequency
scale).

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

103

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REGA RESEARCH DAC-R

mixed on boomy monitors that end up with weak bass and a
bright top end. Unless you’ve gained perspective by working
with a lot of different systems, and unless you have Hstening
tools you trust, you don’t really know.’

One of the tools in my system that I trust is the Bench-
mark DAC2 HGC, which I use for both music and record-
ing playback. I’ve found it to be clean as a whistle, which
works great for my needs. Others may want a little sugar
on top, and here’s where the Rega DAC-R comes back in.
Listening to these vocal tests and subsequent final takes, and
going back and forth between the Rega and Benchmark, I
detected a shght warmth or sweetening with the Rega that I
didn’t hear with the Benchmark.

And I liked it. The singer preferred it. You might, too. At
the end of the day. I’ll pick the Benchmark DAC2 HGC— I
default to a more analytical sound— but the Rega DAC-R
produced a wonderful soundstage, floating aural images in
space where they should be, with plenty of detail and depth.

Over the next two weeks, we recorded mandolin, five-
string fretless electric bass, and double bass (another mike
shoot-out: a small capsule condenser surprised us all). In
each case I used the Rega to choose which mike and mike
placement we’d use, and to guide us to a final mix. But for
that mix I ended up preferring the Benchmark, which steril-
ized the sound just enough to make me think I was hearing
more accurately what was on the hard drive. A very subtle
thing, but there it is.

However, it could be that my preference for the DAC-R’s
Filter 3 for eryoying music may have had something to do
with my preference for the Benchmark for mixing. For sit-
ting back and hstening to music, especially hi-rez files, I pre-

ferred Filter 3— although, as Rega’s Terry Bateman noted, it
gradually rolls off at the very top. I chose Filter 3 before the
recording sessions began, while going through my library
of go-to test tracks stored on the Meridian Digital Media
System server. But the cool thing is, I can change that flavor
of the Rega’s presention a bit by using a different filter.

Final Detail

At $1195, the Rega Research DAC-R sits at the center of
what I consider the sweet spot of price: $1000, plus or minus
a few C-notes. Rega has spent enough in R&D to get the
most cost-effective use of sohd engineering, careful design,
and parts choice, without passing the point of diminishing
returns. The things it doesn’t do include headphone hsten-
ing, DSD, and volume control, yet the DAC-R is clearly
well built, with money spent in all the right places to fulfill
its single purpose: to convert a PCM datastream into an
analog stream.

A couple years ago, when I first auditioned the Rega
DAC, I noted its heavier bottom end and thicker sound
compared to everything else I then had on hand. I feel that
the new DAC-R is similarly voiced, but has moved in the
right direction, especially when used via USB— which makes
it a very pleasing choice for listening to music.

If you have $1195 to spend and prefer your digital music
with a shght bit of warmth, but without losing any of a re-
cording’s details, the Rega DAC-R is a DAC for your short
list— especially since you can tune those filters. ■

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A SECOND IMPRESSION

FOLLOW-UP

BY ART DUDLEY & JOHN ATKINSON

THIS issue: Ayre's AX-5 integrated
amplifier and Bricasti's M28 monoblock
amplifier get second listens.

AYRE ACOUSTICS AX-5
TWENTY INTEGRATED
AMPLIFIER

“You are going to freak out.”

In February, that predic-
tion was offered to me by
Alex Brinkman, the usually
understated sales manager for
Ayre Acoustics. The sug-
gested catalyst for my otherwise
unforeseen psychotic episode:

A new edition of Ayre’s AX-5
integrated amplifier, the original
version of which I reviewed
for Stereophile’i September 2013
issue.' I was impressed with
the first edition— a zero-feed-
back, sohd-state design that I
described as being no less than
“one of the three best, most
musical, and most human-
sounding solid-state amps I’ve
ever heard”— but, as far as I can
recall, it utterly failed to compel
me to run naked through the streets of my village.

The original Ayre AX-5 sold for $9950 and produced
125Wpc, and in it chief engineer Charlie Hansen debuted
a modern implementation of a heretofore obscure 1960s
output architecture: the diamond circuit, an arrangement of
four bipolar transistors that’s well suited for operating above
electrical ground. (To a designer who favors balanced audio
electronics— a category that includes the AX-5— the appeal
of such an approach is obvious.) Ayre also claimed for the
diamond circuit such strengths as high speed, high power
gain, high rehability, and, best of all, good sound.

Another gem in the AX-5’s tiara was Ayre’s own variable-
gain transconductance (VGT) circuitry: a means of con-
trolHng loudness not by attenuating maximal gain— which
willfully hobbles the only operating condition under which
an amp can perform at its best— but by creating, for each of
its 46 volume-control settings, a distinct amount of input-
section gain. Each turn of the AX-5’s volume knob enacted
a parts substitution that created a distinctive circuit: a control
system that required of its designers a great deal of electrical
and mechanical ingenuity.

All of the above was built into a foursquare aluminum-
alloy case whose rear panel offered one stereo pair of loud-
speaker cormectors and six pairs of line-level inputs— four
balanced (XLR), two single-ended (RCA)— and on whose
front panel were two large knobs, for source selection and
volume, and two soft-touch buttons that performed a variety
of jobs.

The AX-5 Twenty ($12,950), named in honor of Ayre’s
20th anniversary, looks identical to its predecessor. But my
review sample sounded a bit different from the AX-5— a
point to which I’ll return— and even felt noticeably different.
The AX-5 ran quite hot, but the Twenty has an output-

Above: The Ayre AX-5 Twenty.
Right: A glimpse inside, including
the motor-actuated VGT system
at the chassis rear.

1 See www.stereophile.com/content/ayre-acoustics-ax-5-integrated-amplifier.
Ayre Acoustics, Inc., 2300-B Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301. Tel: (303) 442-
7300. Web: www.ayre.com.

stage revision— called the double diamond circuit— for which
a 35% reduction in heat is claimed. I didn’t bother taking
the Twenty’s temperature: Although unabashedly warm, the
top of the Twenty’s case was definitely cooler during opera-
tion than the AX-5’s had been. Ayre also claims that the
double-diamond version is “sHghtly more powerftil” than
the previous version, although the pubhshed output spec,
on both their website and in the Twenty’s owner’s manual,
holds steady at 125Wpc.

According to Ayre, the AX-5 Twenty’s all-analog, zero-
feedback power supply has also been refined, and now
benefits from the company’s AyreLock technology, which
adds extra discrete components to the regulation circuitry in
an effort to “lock” the output voltage under all performance
conditions. Additionally, trim pots in the AX-5’s input sec-
tion have been replaced in the Twenty with a servo unit that
Ayre describes as “much better sounding.” Just as important,
this servo is claimed to keep DC offset to less than 15mV,
and even to compensate for DC that may be present in the
outputs of some source components, making accidental

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

109

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FOLLOW-UP

damage to loudspeakers even less
likely than before.

INSTALLATION AND SETUP:
Perhaps it’s only because I’m two years
older than the last time I had an Ayre
product in for review, but this time
around I really chafed at the AX-5’s
setup procedure, which I’ve come to
regard as pointlessly complex. Out of
the box, the AX-5 Twenty is unus-
able: Before listening to music, the
user must configure at least one of
the amp’s six inputs. In and of itself,
that’s not a huge deal; the problem lies
in the 40-page instruction manual’s
presumption of the reader’s very high
level of interest in reading about Ayre’s
way of doing things— high enough not
to blink when told, without apparent
irony, that the information required
to get a “quick start” on using the
AX-5 “is contained in the [first] three
chapters.” And I was frustrated that,
in the chapter on input configura-
tion, the user is instructed to assign
to each input a unique name, lest said
input remain nonfunctional— yet no
indication is given as to which of the
AX-5’s front-panel controls performs
the select function. Granted, with only
two knobs and two buttons on its front
panel, the AX-5 Twenty is hardly a
Klingon Bird of Prey, and I stumbled
upon the correct procedure within a
minute. StiU, why should the buyer of
a $13,000 amplifier have to proceed by
trial and error?

Once I had the AX-5 Twenty up
and running, all was well. With no bal-
anced components on hand, I limited
myself to two single-ended sources:
my Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD
player, and the Hne-level outputs of
a Leema Acoustics Essentials phono
preamplifier. I labeled their respective
inputs CD and PH, then proceeded to
eryoy the more pleasant aspects of the
AX-5 Twenty’s user interface: control
buttons on the large, sturdy remote
handset are clear and well organized;
when switching between sources,
the AX-5 Twenty did not force me
to toggle through unused inputs; the
amp’s Cardas speaker connectors ac-
commodated well the Z-plug-style
bananas on my Auditorium 23 speaker
cables; and the 48-lb AX-5 Twenty—
which is 17.25" wide by 4.875" high hy
18.75" deep— fit nicely atop my Box
Furniture D3S rack.

As with the original AX-5, the build
quality of the AX-5 Twenty is mostly
superb, my only quibble being the
slightly rough manner in which metal

screening is affixed to the underside of
the top panel. Otherwise, everything
was first-class: Ayre bows to no one
in the neatness of their circuit boards,
and the AX-5 Twenty’s motorized,
helt-driven, resistor-array volume
control is indeed a small masterpiece
of engineering.

A final setup note: For this review, I
followed through on a suggestion I’d
seen in the original AX-5’s instruction
manual, on how to customize the
amp’s overall gain by changing a single
resistor per channel. Since both of the
speaker models I used are considerably
more efficient than average, I decided
to try lowering the amp’s gain, and
requested the appropriate new resistors
and instructions for their installation,
which were duly supplied. Apart from
the Allen wrench used to remove the
AX-5 Twenty’s top panel, the only
tool required for the changeover was a
very small, flat-blade screwdriver: The
resistors in question are not soldered in
place, but secured with miniature
terminal blocks that were reasonably
easy to access. That said, after replacing
the original resistors (301 ohm) with
the new ones (619k ohms), the change
in gain range was extremely modest.
That experience, especially when
considered alongside the advantages of
Ayre’s VGT technology, leads me to
advise prospective owners against
hothering with this mod.

LISTENING: Right out of the box,
the AX-5 Twenty hinted at greatness,
with textures wildly good for solid
state and a thoroughly convincing way
with musical momentum and flow.

But it also sounded somewhat com-
pressed, somewhat lacking in the abil-
ity to break out of its cage— whether
driving my DeVore Fidehty Orang-
utan 0/96 or vintage Altec Valencia
speakers. In the days that followed,
the Altecs, with their higher efficiency

The resistor connected to
this terminal panel plays a
small role in determining
the AX-5's gain. Very small.

and sometimes peaky
low-treble range,
proved the poorer
match, so I stayed
with the DeVores
for the duration: a
really excellent choice.
After a Httle over a
week of around-the-
clock rumring-in, the
Ayre opened up and
showed what it could really do.

In my original review, I wrote that
the very faithful AX-5 cut no slack for
hright-sounding recordings, a category
that includes Peter Rowan’s epony-
mous first solo album (LP, Flying Fish
071). I expected the same this time
out— and yet, though the Twenty was
itself truthful on the matter of Richard
Greene’s hotly mixed and hard-sound-
ing fiddle, what I heard this time was
truth of a more generous-spirited sort.
Selections such as “Midnite Moon-
lite” remained on the bright side of
neutral, but were more tolerable than I
remembered from my go-round with
the first AX-5. 1 am very much in favor
of tolerable playback.

In that same review I also men-
tioned how the original AX-5 played
Andre Previn and the London
Symphony Orchestra’s recording of
Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony (LP,
EMI/Alto ASD 3018) with a degree of
hehevable scale and spatial perspective
that I descrihed as “tube-caHber.” The
Twenty performed just as well in those
regards, yet sweetened the deal with .

. . well, with sweetness: This time, this
excellent if occasionally slightly grainy
and occasionally too-hot-on-the-
crescendi recording had more saturated
timbral colors and richer textures
than I rememhered hearing through
the original AX-5. It was, simply and
unambiguously, better— and I’m also
on the record as preferring better, ten
times out of ten.

The sounds of antique wind and
percussion instruments in Musica
Antiqua Vienna’s Le Jardin Musical (LP,
Supraphon 1 11 2126)— which, in that
earlier review, I described as being
“pleasantly tactile” through the AX-5—
were, through the Twenty, joined in
that regard by the sounds of the viola,
the viola da gamha, and various singing
voices, all reproduced with color, hody.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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FOLLOW-UP

scale, melodic and rhythmic drive, and
believable spatial presence. (I almost
said “soundstaging,” but caught myself
at the last second.) With that record,
the Twenty delivered the sort of best-
of-all-worlds performance— musical
rightness and sonic realism— that has
been known to stir the complacent, if
not to compel them to dance naked,
checkbooks in hand.

That LP wasn’t alone. Through
the Ayre, I eryoyed: a recording of
American classical music (Barber, Ives,
Copland, Cowell, Creston) conducted
and played by the very British NeviUe
Martinet and the Academy of St
Martin-in-the-Fields (LP, Argo ZRG
845); the Electric Recording Com-
pany’s new and typically colorful LP
reissue of D’ombre et de lumihre, a recital
of mostly Spanish music performed by

pianist Magda TagUaferro (LP, EMI/
ERC 350 C 001); David Grier’s won-
derfully stringy instrumental collection
Evocative (CD, Dreadnought 0901); and
the uneven but ambitious and curi-
ously satisfying Murder Ballads, by Nick
Cave and the Bad Seeds (CD, Reprise
46195-2). All sounded wonderful, and
served only to cement my impression
that the AX-5 Twenty is inarguably
more realistically colorful, impactful,
and compelling than its predecessor.

VALUE: I don’t know much about
consumer psychology, so I haven’t a
clue whether the AX-5’s crossing of
the five-figure Rubicon will be seen as
a good or a bad thing in the high-end
marketplace. I do know that a 30%
increase in price seems stiff for an
integrated amplifier— something that
most of us are conditioned to regard

as an entry-level component. There
are available, for $3000 or less, some
awfully good one-box amps, though
probably none as good as this. That
said, it’s worth noting that Ayre will
upgrade to full Twenty status any older
AX-5 for $3000: the same amount as
the difference between the model’s
prices.

Did I freak out? The Ayre Acoustics
AX-5 Twenty proved a consistently
engaging, reliably musical, downright
fun integrated amplifier; it improved
on its predecessor in every way except
the user interface; and it stands as one
of the easiest choices in integrated
amps on the market, with a pedigree
that suggests superb reliability and
freedom from obsolescence. Very
strongly recommended, amp and
upgrade ahke.-Art Dudley

BRICASTI DESIGN M28 MONOBLOCK
POWER AMPLIFIER

When Michael Fremer reviewed this
$30, 000/pair power amplifier in the
May 2015 issue,^ he admitted that he
had difficulty getting it to sing with
his Wilson Alexandria XLF speakers,
especially before the review samples
had broken in. “Out of the box and
dead-of-winter-right-off-the-truck cold
(but given a day to reach room temper-
ature),” he wrote, “the M28s sounded
more tube-Hke, more ‘soft and loose’
than ‘fast and tight.’ Though it was
consistent in these and other regards
from top to bottom, the M28s didn’t
exactly provide the woofer control
advertised on Bricasti’s website. Bass
was soft and rhythmically bland.”

After the amplifiers had been
continuously running for a week, MF
felt the Bricasti M28s’ top end fully
opened up, their bottom had tightened,
and the overall sound was considerably
more transparent. However, he still felt
the M28’s sonic signature was “more
smooth and sweet than fast and tight.”

In their “Manufacturer’s Comment,”
Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell of
Bricasti Design^ felt that Michael was
yearning after aspects of the sound
that, in absolute terms, were unnatural.
“When a listener is presented with a
sound that contains an order of magni-
tude less distortion than their reference
system,” they wrote, “it takes time to
hear that as a positive aspect of the
sound. Distortion masks the honesty of
the recording, but it also adds high-
frequency excitement. The additional
harmonics add volume, particularly

to transient elements and
elements that already have
a bit of distortion in the
recording.” In my “Mea-
surements” sidebar to the
review, I had noted that the M28s did
indeed offer very low distortion. “Even
at 40% power into 4 ohms,” I wrote,
the highest-level distortion harmonic,
the third, “lay at -90dB (0.003%).”

There was also a possible complica-
tion with Michael’s reference preampli-
fier, the darTZeel NHB-18NS, which
sounds at its best when used from its
single-ended outputs, whereas the M28
prefers to see a fuUy balanced input
signal. Michael did use the darTZeel’s
transformer-coupled balanced outputs,
as well as its single-ended outputs, to
drive the Bricastis, but that introduces
another variable.

Given all of these mat-
ters, Brian Zolner asked me
if I would be prepared to
write a Eollow-Up on the
M28, especially as I still had
the review sample that I had measured
(serial no.l006). I agreed, and the other
sample ME had reviewed (no .1007)
was shipped to me after being checked
out at the factory. (Zolner let me know
that no.l007’s bias was shghtly high,
but did not think this would change
the measured performance.)

I was also sent an up-to-date sample
of the Bricasti Ml D/A processor,
which I had reviewed in February

2 See www.stereophile.com/content/bricasti-
design-m2 8-monoblock-power- amplifier.

3 Bricasti Design, Ltd., 2 Shaker Road, Building JlOO,
Shirley, MA 01464. Tel: (978) 425-5199. Web: www.
bricasti.com.

The M28 offers both
balanced and unbalanced
inputs. JA used balanced
exclusively.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

113

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FOLLOW-UP

2012.“* However, to avoid changing too
many variables at once, I did most of
my auditioning of the M28s with two
balanced-output DACs with which

1 was familiar: Ayre Acoustics’ QB-9
and PS Audio’s PerfectWave Direct-
Stream— the latter running the v.1.2.1
firmware because I was not familiar
with the more recent Pikes Peak
upgrade— both comiected via Audio-
Quest’s JitterBug USB cleaner. The
source was a Mac mini running Pure
Music 2.0 and Audirvana Plus v.1.5.12,
and the speakers were first the KEF
Blade Twos (I reviewed these in June),
then GamuT RS7s (review underway).
At first, I used the DACs to drive the
fully balanced Ayre KX-R Twenty
preamplifier.

Mostly, I think, Michael called it
correctly. Once broken in— which did
indeed take a few days from com-
pletely cold— the M28s produced a
wide, especially deep and expansive
soundstage, tvith an absence of grain.
The midrange sounded superbly
natural, the high frequencies smooth
yet detailed. With the KEFs, the
balance was a little on the polite side,
though the GamuT speakers proved a
synergistic match. With Ivan Fischer
and the Budapest Festival Orchestra
performing Rachmaninoff’s Symphony

2 (DSD64, Channel Classics 21604),
the M28s produced an enormous
sweep of sound at the climaxes, with
no tendency toward glare or the treble
balance becoming congested, and the
Tchaikovsky-esque brass scoring had
just the right amount of “blattiness,”
in the late J. Gordon Holt’s wording.
The big violin tune in the slow move-
ment— there is no punishment severe
enough for Eric Carmen’s stealing this
tune for his 1976 hit “Never Goima
Fall in Love Again”— maintained

its tonal composure as the volume
increased, with no audible signs of
intermodulation-type distress.

Michael’s main criticism had
concerned the M28’s reproduction of
the low frequencies. Certainly, with
the Rachmaninoff, the doubles basses
dug down deep. In “My Rival,” from
Steely Dan’s Gaucho (24-bit/96kHz
ABAC file transcoded from FLAC,
HDtracks/MCA B0000868-36), the
bass guitar and kick drum sounded
rich but tight with the Bricastis, and
weightier than with the Ayre MX-R
Twenty amplifiers reviewed elsewhere
in this issue. Certainly the weak spot
of the otherwise superb Pass Labs
XA60.5 monoblocks that I reviewed in

January 2014® was their bass regis-
ter— the Bricastis readily outclassed the
Passes in that respect.

Given Bricasti’s provenance— the
company was founded and its products
designed by Madrigal and Harman
alumni who had been involved with
the Mark Levinson brand— I would
have loved to have been able to com-
pare the M28s with the samples of the
Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks I
purchased back in 1998, However, one
of my ’33Hes has had a broken power
supply for several years now, and fix-
ing it has been too long on my to-do
list. (A task that is neither urgent nor
important tends to get a low priority.)
But the M2 8 didn’t seem to have the
rather dark balance that I remember
the Levinsons having.

In my review of the KX-R Twenty,®
I had commented on the paradox that
the system sounded better with the
Ayre preamplifier than with a volume-
control-equipped DAC feeding the
power amplifiers directly. But in an
e-mail exchange with John Marks,
he had mentioned that he got great
sound from the Bricasti DAC without
using an intervening preamplifier. I
therefore cormected the PS Audio
PerfectWave DirectStream DAC di-
rectly to the M28s, matching levels to
within O.lSdB to those I had used with
the Ayre preamplifier for the same
selections of music. (The PS Audio’s
volume control was generally set to
provide 12-20dB of attenuation.)

To my surprise, with the levels
matched, the PS Audio feeding the
M28s sounded slightly quieter. But
there was a noticeable improvement
in clarity. John Barbirolli’s rather
muddy-sounding 1962 traversal of
Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture, with the
Philharmonia Orchestra in London’s
Kingsway Hall (ALAC file ripped
from CD, EMI Classics CDM 7 64511
2), lightened up, but without the
brass instruments sounding harsh. But
Giuliano Carmignola and Mayumi
Hirasaki’s brisk performance of J.S.
Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, BWV
1043, accompanied by Concerto Koln
(ALAC file ripped from CD, Deutsche
Grammophon Archiv 0289 479 2695
5), now sounded a little too shrill.
Certainly the M28’s rather laid-back
balance was now less pohte, a little
more vivid. The Channel Classics
Rachmaninoff still sounded sweet— and
the solo violin in the first movement
was deliciously tangible— but the low
instruments sounded a bit too gruff

and less authoritative without the Ayre
preamp in circuit.

On balance, with the PS Audio DAC
I think I preferred the Bricasti M28s
used with the Ayre preamp. But either
way, this was definitely superbly involv-
ing sound. It was time, therefore, to
replace the PS Audio with the Bricasti
Ml, again without a preamplifier and
primarily with the MTs reconstruc-
tion filter set to “Minimum 0.” With
the Bricasti D/A processor driving the
M28s directly and its volume-control
settings ranging between “-22dB” and
“-lldB,” to match as closely as pos-
sible the volumes with the PS Audio
both used direct and with the Ayre
preamplifier for each music track, this
was the best sound I obtained wdth
the M28s. The midrange remained as
sweet and detailed as it had been with
the PS Audio PerfectWave Direct-
Stream, and the highs were in better
balance with the mids.

More important, the low frequencies
in the Rachmaninoff were both better
defined and had more weight with the
Ml driving the M28s directly. Pino
Palladino’s Fender bass, played with
the heel of his right hand damping the
strings at the bridge, on Where the Light
Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles (ALAC
ripped from DVD, Sony 722727), had
full weight. The PS Audio was slightly
better at presenting reverberation tails
in my recordings of the Portland State
Chamber Choir, but the MTs more
forward signature worked better with
the M28s.

The M28’s sound still has a more
polite balance than that of the Ayre
MX-R Twenty, but used in an
empathetic system— particularly in
one optimized for classical orchestral
music— it will produce true reference-
quahty sound. Overall, I very much
enjoyed the time the Bricasti M28s
spent in my system. They worked best
with Bricasti’s own Ml driving them
directly, particularly with the laid-back
KEF Blade Twos. Yes, at $30,000/
pair this is an expensive amplifier, but
if you want the reliability of a solid-
state design with the smooth-balanced
midrange magic of tubes, and low
frequencies that are sufficiently well
developed, the Bricasti M28 is indeed a
Class A contender. -John Atkinson

4 See www.stereophile.com/content/bricasti-
design-ml-da-converter.

5 See www.stereophile.com/content/pass-labs-
xabOS-monoblock-power-amphfier.

6 See www.stereophile.com/content/ayre-acoustics-
kx-r-twenty-line -preamplifier.

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

115

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« RECORD REVIEWS

EDITOR’S PICK

RECORDING
OF THE MONTH

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE

Live at the Fillmore East,
October 4th & 5th, 1968

Epic 88843023712 (4 CDs). 2015. Sly Stone,
orig. prod.; Bob Irwin, reissue prod.;

Vic Anesini, mastering. AAD? TT: 3:27:31

PERFORMANCE it it i(

SONICS itltirnir

T he first thing you hear is
not Sly Stone’s keyboards
or harmonica. Not Freddie
Stone’s guitar. Not Greg
Errico’s amazing drumming. Not
Larry Graham’s slapping hass. Not
the voices of Rose Stone (also keys)
and Cynthia Rohinson (also tmm-
pet), nor Jerry Martini’s saxophone.

No. The first thing you hear is
pure energy: the nuclear reaction
of musical power that Sly and his
Family Stone generated onstage on
two October nights in 1968 at the
Fillmore East. James Brown and his
band(s) had nothing on these seven.
This is prime Sly, when the band was
still hungry, before the hits, before
his life spun out of control, the music
suffered, and the family split.

What may be even more unbeliev-
able than the music here is the fact
that these four sets, released in July
2015 as Live at the Fillmore East, October
4th & 5th, 1968, were at one time
slated for release in some form in
early 1969, but were shelved by Epic
Records when Stone’s “Everyday
People” became a hit. Not to stomp
on sour grapes, but it’s mind-bog-
gling today, when the music market
is flooded with disposable, less-than-
thrilUng content, that in 1968 Epic’s
parent label, Columbia Records, had
so much compelling music to release
that they could afford to leave this
firecracker on the shelf

In October 1968, the first major
American rock band to be integrated,
and that indeed included two other
members of Sylvester’s family, was
just back from the UK, where they’d
had conflicts with promoters, gear
problems, and Larry Graham had
endured a pot bust. By the time they
took the stage at the Fillmore they’d
also written and recorded “Everyday
People,” the tune that sealed the fate of
the resulting live recordings.

Described as being “professionally
recorded,” this set has the skimpiest
liner notes and recording informa-
tion of any major release in many
years. Sly is listed as producer for his
Stone Flower Productions. Calls to
Sony confirmed that the shows were

recently mixed for this release by Bob
Irwin and Joe Palmaccio, and mastered
by Vic Anesini at Battery Mastering,
in Manhattan. No engineer is listed.
These weird oversights aren’t overly
critical, because this is a high-quality,
three dimensional, multitrack live
recording— which makes its 47-year
absence all the more bizarre. The
imaging is solid, and the sound is
clear and natural, with no dropouts,
overloaded microphones, or the tape
hiss that dogged some later Sly studio
recordings, a side effect of his obses-
sive overdubbing. A two-LP best-of
set, its cuts selected by “Captain” Kirk
Douglas, of the Roots, was released in
April 2015 for Record Store Day.

While the set lists of the four show
are very similar, focusing on mate-
rial from the two (!) albums the band
released in 1968, Dance to the Music and
Life, it’s the second show on Octo-
ber 4 that stands out. Sly shouts the

first tune’s count-off and the band
launches into “M’Lady,” which then,
without missing a beat, morphs
into “Don’t Burn Baby.” Crazy as it
sounds, the whole thing is wonder-
fully loose yet incredibly tight at the
same time. The tempos vary from
urgent to downright fast. Through-
out, this is a band that cannot be
fooled. No turn is too sharp, no curb
too high. This is jamming at its most
elastic: gritty, heartfelt fimk with
horns rising to high art. Album-
jacket photos confirm that Sly led
this wondrous mass of music from
center stage, singing, playing organ,
and leading the many vocal breaks,
which consist of singing, shouted
phrases, and rhythmic scattmg that
can be considered proto-rapping.

What seals the deal that this was
a band for the ages, bursting with
talent, ideas, and spirit, is their aston-
ishing rendition of the jazz standard
“St. James Infirmary.” Using a bell
mute, Robinson plays the melody
while the great Graham plays funky
counterpoint behind her. Eventu-
ally, Sly’s organ joins in, but as was
usual with this band, the tune stops
and starts several times. It’s easily the
funkiest version in existence of this
oft-played standard. A headlong mash-
up of Sly’s “Turn Me Loose” and Otis
Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” is
a loud/soft/loud-again extravaganza,
complete with Stax-like horn accents
and driven by the mad-fast dmmming
of Errico, unwinds into an unexpected
harmonica solo by Sly. It’s a cliche, but
the grooves the Family Stone generates
here are monstrous— you get the feel-
ing they could play anything, make any
song their own. While here the fire
was funk, by this point they were also
a nimble R&B band that was the equal
of any of the great house bands that
then existed: at Stax in Memphis, or
Motown’s Funk Brother, or the Muscle
Shoals Swampers.

If there’s a down note, it’s that the
might and musicality here are so aston-
ishing to modern ears, 47 years after it
was recorded. In today’s music, where
can you find this kind of energy and
excitementi-RobertBaird ■

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

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CLASSICAL

RECORD REVIEWS

MAHLER

Symphony 2, "Resurrection”

REICH

Music for 18 Musicians

Catherine Wyn-Rogers, mezzo-soprano; Ailish
Tynan, soprano; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra & Choir, Gerard Schwarz
Artek 0061-2 (2 CDs). 2015. Michael Ogonovsky,
prod.; David A. Pigott, eng. DDD. TT: 80:37

SONICS rTTm

First, this performance could have fit
on one CD. Second, Mahler asked
for a pause between the first and the
remaining four movements, which
could have been achieved by putting
those final four on disc 2, instead of the
first four movements on disc 1, as here.
Does anyone at Artek pay attention?
Third, the recording level is so low
that you have to turn up the volume
to make Mahler’s explosions effective,
which is too bad— they are, for the most
part, beautifully judged and played,
with some nice surprises in the last
movement: a quick, forceful entry of
the male voices near the end that sets
us up for the huge drama. The gentle
second movement goes by almost un-
noticed due to the low recording level,
and the “St. Anthony” movement lacks
wit at the start and anguish near the
end. Catherine Wyn-Rogers sings the
fourth movement, Urlicht, beautifully,
but Mahler wanted the fifth move-
ment to follow immediately on its tail,
flttacca— having to swap out discs loses
that fabulous effect.

Schwarz’s Mahler has been success-
ful on CD— his Symphony 4 is terrific—
and there’s much to enjoy here: the
perorations are thrilling in the first and
last movements, and orchestral detail is
fine. But the wrong-headed disc break
and weird sound won’t do. Dynamite
performances are easily found: Bern-
stein on DG and Slatkin on Telarc are

just two.— Robert Levine

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I have written repeatedly
in this magazine, when the recording level is
low, that means the recording has wide dynamic
range. In this case, while you have to turn up
the volume, Mahler's “explosions” are captured
and played back without compression.— iA

Brad Lubman, Ensemble Signal
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907608 (CD). 2015.
Michael Reisman, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 59:17

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

★★★★★

This piece from the mid-1970s is a
cornerstone of 20th-century music.
Here, Reich refuses to tell a story or
write predictable music; Music for 18
Musicians has no middle, beginning,
or end. The unifying element is its
pulsing, perpetual-motion rhythm, its
changing textures, its inner harmonies
and jigsaw-puzzle links. It defines
minimalism in all of the best, most ar-
ticulate ways. Early-music lovers might
even realize the debt Reich owes to
Leonin and Perotin, whose 12th- and
13th-century compositions were
the first to use polyphony: different
rhythms and voices sounding at the
same time. With 18 instruments— and
four voices singing wordless syllables—
at Reich’s disposal, the sound pos-
sibilities are close to infinite; they’re
what keep the work going, and keep
it fascinating. Most people hearing it
for the first time at first say, “What is
this? It’s too repetitive.” By the time
they’ve reached the end, they’ve said,
“Wow!” and “Wait— are those voices?”
and “Jeez— marimbas!” and “Four
pianos?!” Also, frequently, they want
to dance. It becomes, somehow, an
almost endlessly fascinating rite. With
bass clarinets.

I’d never heard Ensemble Signal
before (as far as I can tell, this is only
their second recording), but for ac-
curacy, transparency, and sheer joie de
musique, they beat even the 1978 ECM
recording led by Reich, which has sold
well over 100,000 copies. It helps that
the engineering is magnificent, every
texture audible but not underlined in
that “early digital” way. Reich himself
has called this performance “Fast mov-
ing, spot on and emotionally charged.”
Amen.— Robert Levine

VIVALDI

The Four Seasons; Cantata, "Cessate
omai"; Aria, "Gelido in ogni vena,"
from II Farnace

Dmitry Sinkovsky, violin, countertenor, conductor;
La Voce Strumentale

Naive OP30559 (CD). 2014. Laure Casenave-Pere,
prod.; Etienne Grossein, eng. DDD. TT: 61:04

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

★★★★★

This performance of The Four Seasons is
fantastically conceived, without going
outside of the music (no trombones or
tam-tams or electric enhancement), by
Russian violin virtuoso and conduc-
tor Dmitry Sinkovsky, who is also a
countertenor with a fine voice. He
sings on this CD, but only once does
he do all three at the same time. His
11-piece band includes two harpsi-
chords, double bass, baroque harp, and
archlute, but is otherwise simple— all
period instruments, of course. The
performances are unique in choices of
tempos, emphases, colors, and embel-
lishments— sometimes wild, always
honest, and “new” in a way that makes
one listen more carefully, probably,
than ever before. And they’re wild
fun. From the tiny solo flourishes
that introduce the slow movements
to the manic alterations in tempo and
dynamics that clearly grow out of the
poems that Vivaldi used as inspiration,
we get: a storm to remember; a sense
of real danger as Winter arrives, with
baroque harp and squeaking violin;
and a creepy harpsichord intro as the
slow movement of Fall arrives, fol-
lowed by a most bumpkin-like jollity
in the finale.

Sinkovsky lends his beautiful,
expressive voice to the cantata “Cessate
omai,” a lover’s lament placed between
Summer and Fall; and to “Gelido in ogni
vena,” from Vivaldi’s opera II Farnace,
with its beginning that seems at first
like a fifth season, but is the self-hating
lament of a father looking at the dead
body of his son. In short, a unique,
necessary, and madly impressive
collection.— Robert Levine

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

119

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JAZZ

RECORD REVIEWS

ROCK/POP

ROY ROGERS

Into the Wild Blue

HARRY ALLEN

For George, Cole and Duke

Chops Not Chaps CNC-40n5 (CD). 2015.

Roy Rogers, prod.; Joel Jaffe, eng. DDD. TT: 43:00

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

★ ★★★★

This is the Promised Land Chuck
Berry was leading us to. Roy Rogers is
like Chuck Berry in that, while a blues
guitarist at heart, he’s always intent on
taking the music to new places. He
mastered the Robert Johnson codex
early in his career, then concentrated
on producing as he shepherded John
Lee Hooker to his late-life, Grammy-
winning renaissance. Since then Rogers
has sought to expand the contours of
blues nomenclature, working with
fellow genre-husting virtuosos like
Bonnie Raitt, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and
hanjo maestro Bela Fleck. Rogers spent
recent years collaborating with the late
Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. He
was the best songwriting partner Man-
zarek had had since Jim Morrison, and
the experience affected Rogers’s own
songwriting. In such songs as “Got to
Believe,” “Love Is History,” and “Don’t
You Let Them Win,” ifs almost as if
Manzarek’s spirit is sitting on Rogers’s
shoulder. Rogers enlisted lyricist Don-
na Johnston for the blistering breakup
anthem “Losin’ You” and the atmo-
spheric rocker “Dark Angels.” In “Last
Go-Round,” he layers guitar parts in
twisted syncopation as drummer Kevin
Hayes and bassist Steve Ehrmann cut
an intense backbeat groove. Rogers in-
cludes three great guitar instmmentals
that showcase his chops with skillfully
overdubbed orchestrations. All of this
acts as prelude to a beautiful, album-
closing eulogy for his brother, “Song
for Robert (A Brother’s Lament).” The
songs are balanced to perfection on this
album of a lifetime— a distillation of
everything that has made Roy Rogers
such an important blues artist over the
years. His signature slide playing is su-
perb, and the band rocks with precise
abandon. A masterpiece.-john Swenson

Harry Allen, tenor saxophone; Ehud Asherie, piano;
Nikki Parrott, bass, vocals; Chuck Redd, drums, vibes;
"Little Johnny" Rivero, percussion
Blue Heron 0001 (CD). 2015. Chuck Redd, prod.;
Michael Brorby, eng. DDD. TT: 70:28
PERFORMANCE rTTTig

In 2015, the jazz art form is vital and
diverse. Most of its current iterations
require the listener to work. You must
fully engage your cognition and imagi-
nation in order to deal with abstrac-
tion, displacement, fragmentation,
interruption, and unresolved ambigu-
ity. Often, jazz musicians portray the
stresses and conflicts of our time.

Not Harry Allen. He is only 48, but
his spiritual home is the swing era, pre-
Bird. His tenor saxophone warms like
a caress. There is something decadent
about a groove so relaxed. Listening to
Allen is so sensually gratifying it feels
illegal. He is a guilty pleasure because
jazz is not supposed to be this pretty.

Is it?

Allen’s new album contains lesser-
known songs by Gershwin, Porter,
and Ellington. “By Strauss” shows
how Allen can swing anything, even
a tricky Gershwin waltz. It also shows
how elegant melodic variations
flow from him, seemingly without
effort, as if he has opened a valve.
Porter’s “Love for Sale” is refreshed
as a mambo. A slow, languid piece
like Ellington’s “Happy Reunion” is
in Allen’s wheelhouse. Bassist Nikki
Parrott doubles as a singer. Her “In a
Mellow Tone” and “Mood Indigo” are
clear and sweet.

But Allen’s true anointed tempo
is none of the above. It is a certain
mellow medium lilt, as in Gershwin’s
“They All Laughed,” which sweeps
Allen up Hke a river and gently floats
him downstream. The lyricism is so
pure, it already exists in your subcon-
scious. You don’t have to work for it.
It’s addictive. Most guilty pleasures

3.rc.— Thomas Conrad

MILES DAVIS

At Newport 1955-1975:
The Bootleg Series Vol.4

Miles Davis, trumpet, organ; 28 others
Columbia/Legacy 88875081952 (4 CDs). 2015.
Teo Macero, Heinz Wehrle, orig. prods.; Richard
Seidel, Michael Cuscuna, release prods.; Adjutor
Theroux, Buddy Graham, Reice Hamel, Klaus Koenig,
engs. ADD? TT: 4:55:39

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

★★★ ★ ★

Life is good. Sony has just delivered
another volume in the Miles Davis
Bootleg Series. The first three editions
were specific to a band and year. 14)1.4
encompasses 20 years and six different
ensembles. Very different.

The material comes from live
concerts produced by George Wein for
his Newport Jazz Festival organization.
As a unifying theme, it’s a stretch. But
these four CDs contain four hours of
Miles music new to the world.

14)1.4 documents an artist who kept
fearlessly reinventing himself In 1955
he was a seminal post-bop trumpet
player. By 1958 he was moving toward
modal freedom. By 1966 he was
obliterating previous notions of small
ensemble form. By 1969 he was going
electric. By the ’70s he was abandoning
jazz for funk and pandemonium. It’s
all here.

The previously unissued material
contains three additions to the Jazz
Holy Grail Archives. The first is a
historic jam session in 1955. In “Hack-
ensack” and “Now’s the Time,” MUes,
Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan, and Thelo-
nious Monk are young and invincible.
Miles and Monk do an early, edgy,
existential “’Round Midnight.” The
other two are sets by the Second Great
Quintet. At Newport in 1966 and
1967, they were consumed in flame.

In “Stella by Starlight,” Miles is wild
and sublime. “Footprints,” wdth Herbie
Hancock splashing and careening, be-
side himself, joins the greatest versions
of Wayne Shorter’s greatest song.

Sonically, Tbl.4 is a crapshoot. Only a
fool would COmplain.-Thornas Conrad

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

121

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RECORD REVIEWS

GIOVANNI 6UIDI TRIO

GIOVANNI GUIDI

This Is the Day

Giovanni Guidi, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass;
Joao Lobo, drums

ECM 2403 CCD). 2015. Manfred Eicher, prod.;
Stefano Amerio, eng. DDD. TT: 73:16

lititititit

SONICS rTTTT3

Many of the best living jazz piano
players are Italian: Stefano Bollani. En-
rico Pieranunzi. Danilo Rea. Stefano
Battaglia. And another Italian genera-
tion is coming up behind them, of
whom the most talented is Giovanni
Guidi.

Guidi is best known for his work
with Enrico Rava, but he’s been
making strong records of his own for
10 years, since he was 20. In concert
he can be jagged and loud. This Is
the Day is his second recording as a
leader for ECM. Like the first. City of
Broken Dreams, it presents Guidi’s more
thoughtful, poetic side. It also reveals
that, among the Itahan pianists, he
may now be the best composer. Here
are exquisitely timed, gradual unfold-
ings like the two variations of “TriUy”
(melodic arcs of grace curving in
space) and “The Night It Rained For-
ever” (rapt with recurrent tremolos).

Guidi has grown not only as a
composer but as an interpreter of
standards. “Quizas Quizas Quizas”
and “Fm Through with Love” were
sung by Nat “King” Cole. In Guidi’s
versions, 60 years on. Cole’s lush
romanticism is refracted through post-
modern reality. It is still seductive, but
more complicated, and darker.

This album presents not one but
two of the most exciting players to
enter jazz in the new millennium.
Thomas Morgan’s prominent role in
Guidi’s trio is reminiscent of Scott La-
Faro’s with Bill Evans. In the presence
of a supremely lyrical pianist, only a
few bass players have ever been able
to continuously elevate the ensemble
discourse and to deepen the atmo-
sphere with rarefied lyricism of their

own.— Thomas Conrad

WILLIAM PARKER

Ceremonies for Those Who Are, Still

William Parker, double bass; many others
Aum Fidelity AUM092-4 (3 CDs). 2015. William
Parker, Steven Joerg, prods.; Petr Cancura, eng. DDD.
TT: 3:40:00

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

William Parker

Wood f llte Sortcs

Wood Flute Songs

William Parker, double bass; many others
Aum Fidelity AUM080-87 (8 CDs). 2013. William
Parker, Steven Joerg, prods.; Jeff Wilson, Ryan
Peterson, others, engs. DDD. TT: 9:46:32

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

★★★★ ★

Double bassist and composer William
Parker is involved in so many proj-
ects it’s hard to keep track. Wherever
you encounter his music, prepare for
revelation. These releases document
two very different iterations of Parker’s
work. Ceremonies includes “For Fannie
Lou Hamer,” a complex piece for 12
instruments recorded at The Kitchen
in NYC, October 2000; “Red Giraffe
with Dreadlocks,” a 2012 world-music
composition for octet with spoken-
word segments; and the beautiful title
piece, recorded in Poland in Novem-
ber 2013 with Parker’s quartet, accom-
panied by the Wroclaw Philharmonic
Orchestra and Choir.

The eight CDs of Wood Flute Songs
comprise live performances from one
of the finest improvisational units
of the 21st century. In May 2000,
Parker assembled alto saxophonist
Rob Brown, trumpeter Lewis Barnes,

and drummer Hamid Drake to record
O’Neal's Porch. Since then the quartet
has constructed a rich musical history,
cruising the jazz omniverse, especially
the post- 1960s exploration of the con-
nections between free improvisation,
blues, R&B, and world music. Discs
1 and 2 capture two 2006 sets from
Yoshi’s, in Oakland, California. Set one
begins with a ruminative 10-minute
bass solo from Parker that sets the tone
for “Tears for the Children of Rwan-
da.” By the time they reach the third
composition, “Groove #7,” the listener
has been around the world of musical
expression. Parker plays with relent-
less strength through shifting time
signatures, the pulse at the heart of the
band’s harmonic makeup telepathi-
cally matched by Drake’s propulsive,
melodic drum patterns. Brown and
Barnes are brilliant, both individually
and in unison passages.

Set two opens with Parker’s homage
to Don Cherry, “Wood Flute Song.”

As elsewhere in these recordings, here
Barnes seems to channel Cherry. This
set also includes a magnificent tribute
to bassist Malachi Favors, “Malachi’s
Mode.”

For a set at the 2009 Vision Festival
(disc 5), Parker addedjames Spaulding
on alto, Bobby Bradford on cornet,
and Billy Bang on violin. This com-
pletely improvised music— it includes
“Gilmore’s Hat,” for Sun Ra’s tenor
saxophonist John Gilmore— is an un-
mitigated triumph of spiritual beauty.
Bang sounds transported in service of
the Jenkins material.

Bang followedjenkins to the
afterworld five days after the William
Parker Creation Ensemble debuted the
beautiful “Psahn for Billy Bang.” For
this performance at the 2011 AMR
Jazz Festival, in Geneva, Switzerland
(disc 6), Parker augmented the quartet
with another bass and trumpet, bass
clarinet, and soprano, alto, tenor, and
baritone saxophones.

For Suoni Per II Popolo, held in
Montreal in 2012 (disc 7), the quartet
was joined by pianist Eri Yama-
moto and singer Leena Conquest,
the extraordinary talent featured in
Parker’s Raining on the Moon band.
Fortunately, two unreleased tracks
from that band’s sessions for Corn Meal
Dance (2007) are included on disc 8,
which features a 2012 Vision Festival
performance with the quartet joined
by Cooper Moore on piano— a fitting
conclusion to this historic project.

—John Swenson

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

123

LETTERS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

The elephant in the room

Editor:

John Marks’s “As We See It” editorial in
June, “Abandon FoUy, Not Hope” (p.3),
touched on some important points but
missed the elephant in the room: how
our hobby is being impacted by income
inequality. $20,000 speakers being rare
in 1982 yet common today is a perfect
example of the income-inequality trend.
More at the top have big houses and
can afford the “trophy systems.” In the
meantime, the middle class is shrinking.
Where the baby boomers bought big
houses and had the space and the income
for a component system, Gen X/Y/mil-
lennials are having to downsize. Many are
living in smaller apartments and condos,
especially in urban areas where housing
costs have skyrocketed.

How does this affect our hobby? I don’t
think it is as simple as a cultural shift of
music becoming a background experi-
ence. People in the 1970s boogied with
disco in the background too. In today’ s
world, it just doesn’t make logistical sense
to have a component rack and big box
speakers in a 600-square-foot urban con-
do, even when people can afford them.

What is the answer to income inequal-
ity? That’s a bigger political question. But
JM’s comments are on the right track.

As with climate change, only fools deny
that income inequality is happening. Our
hobby is just going to have to adapt.

—Drew Edmonds
Seattle, WA
hifiandrew@yahoo.com

I wrote in March 2011 about the effects on the
audio industry of increasing income equality and
the diminishing middle class (see www.stereo-
phile.com/content/upward-price-spiral). With
the middle segment of the audio market most
affected by these economic realities, you now
see an explosive inaease in the number of very
expensive audio components. This is because,
as I explained then, for a small, privately held
company— and the majority of specialty audio
manufacturers are indeed small companies—
there is less financial risk in offering a small
number of very expensive products than a much
larger number of affordably priced products. To
design and build a product for the bottom end of
the audio market requires large amounts of bor-
rowed capital; failing to meet that product's sales
target therefore will endanger the company's
continued existence. -John Atkinson

Stop comparing

Editor:

I can’t pinpoint the beginning of “Com-

parisons” sections, but they are now an
ever-present part of product reviews. This
causes a feeling that has crept into society
of competition being necessary for living.
We are bombarded by the oppressive
ubiquitous specter of competition in the
media, the workplace, and the streets. It
is difficult not to see it as the paradigm
controlling our lives!

Reviews can be useful and pertinent
by expressing the attributes of the item
reviewed, free from the oppression of
comparisons. —Carlos E. Bauza

bauzace50@yahoo.com

We usually receive complaints that there are not
enough comparisons with competing products in
our equipment reports, Mr. Bauza. I do feel that
comparisons with similar products that have
already been reviewed and with which readers
will be familiar are essential. The only excep-
tions are large, heavy loudspeakers; there, the
logistics of arranging appropriate comparisons
are beyond our capabilities.-John Atkinson

1000-Base BS

Editor:

It’s so depressingly irresponsible for Stereo-
phile to review, discuss, advertise, or even
acknowledge the existence of “high-end”
Ethernet cables. To claim any audible
difference, regardless of run length or
associated equipment, is to admit a fun-
damental lack of understanding of how

As with climate change,
only fools deny that
income inequality is
happening.

Ethernet works. Even 24-bit/192kHz
audio occupies such a small fraction of
the gigabit Ethernet data payload. From
here, we could get into a lengthy discus-
sion of Ethernet frames, error correction,
preambles, stop-bits, encoding, and buff-
ering. Silver conductors and Teflon-braid-
ed shielding won’t help, dude. It’s beyond
measurements or double-blind listening
tests. It’s simply not possible. And [the
manufacturers] know this.

— Christopher Eriksen
San Jose, CA
ferik@gmail.com

Thank you for writing Mr. Eriksen. Regarding
advertising of Ethernet cables, it is perhaps
difficult for people not involved in publishing
to comprehend that the “Wall of China" that
exists between editorial and advertising depart-

ments works in both directions. Just as there is
no influence from advertising on Stereophile’s
content, I don't get to see what ads say until I
see the magazine when its readers do: when it
is printed.

Regarding reviews and discussions of
Ethernet cables, there is absolutely no doubt
that audio data packetized and transmitted
via a network are identical at the destination
to what those data were at the transmitting
end. No one disputes that. But having directly
compared two Ethernet cables and perceived
audible differences, I feel there must be some
other explanation. See, for example, Michael
Lavorgna's informative articles on our sister site
AudioStream.com: www.audiostream.com/
content/cables-bits-and-noise-how-cables-can-
make-sound-difference and www.audiostream.
com/content/digital-cables-and-noise.

—John Atkinson

To Play or Not to Play

Editor:

Jason Victor Serinus’s article “To Play or
Not to Play” (“As We See It,” March, p.3)
caught our attention. As a manufacturer
of loudspeakers, we see trade shows as a
venue to have our products perform their
best and in a way that engages the audi-
ence. With that being said, there is really
no such thing as a product without any
weakness that performs beyond reproach
in all setups. The search for greater levels
of perfection keeps our industry moving
forward, yet it can be a stumbling block
for trade-showgoers looking to find sonic
nirvana.

It is expected that manufacturers show
their best technology and designs with
amazing sonic results. The mb is trying
to define amazing sonic results. By care-
fully selecting source material to play, an
exhibitor will have some control over the
performance. When new source mate-
rial is requested, the results are totally
unknown until the needle drops or the
Play button is pressed. There is a certain
level of excitement, maybe more toward
anxiety, when playing unknown songs,
but it is tmly at the risk of disappointing a
large part of the audience.

So it is a gamble— a gamble that may
not be worth taking during standard
show hours. For those who bring their
own music to an exhibit, it is fair to
ask that person to return for a private
audition— or, better yet, to arrange for a
private audition at their nearest dealer
location. This provides the customer with
a better, more pristine sample of their
music, with no distractions.

—Luke Zitterkopf
President, Aluminous Audio
Luke@aluminousaudio.com

124

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

ANY CLOD CAN HAVE THE FACTS;
HAVING OPINIONS IS AN ART

MANUFACTURERS'
COMMENTS

Wilson Benesch Square One

Editor:

Back to the future with the Sound
Organisation of Dallas! Thanks go to the
intellectual and musician who is John
Marks, for our first review in print in the
US after many years. It was a delight to
read from every conceivable angle. We
look forward to working in the US in
future years, with great business partners
and tried and tested products.

Craig and Christina Milnes
Wilson Benesch

Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a

Editor:

I want to thank Herb Reichert for pen-
ning such a fine piece on the new Falcon
LS3/5a classic BBC monitor. Also, many
thanks to John Atkinson and Stereophile
for allowing this piece to be written and
included in this issue.

The only comments I can offer pertain
to my experience and why I chose to
import the Falcon. In the middle 1970s, I
happened on a fine audio store in Blacks-
burg, Virginia, home of Virginia Poly-
technic. The store happened to have on
display the Luxman MB 3045 ampHfiers.
At their suggestion, I visited a customer
who was using the amps with the 15
ohm version of the LS3/5a incorporat-
ing the KEF BllO and T27 drive-units.
He was an engineering student and was
producing his own preamp. I beUeve the
company he was founding at that time is
still in existence. It was my first experi-
ence with the speakers, and I was blown
away completely.

Like all good audiophiles, I lusted after
this new find, and before long I had a
mad wife and a pair of MB 3045s and the
LS3/5a’s. Many of my friends— it seems
like we all were into great music and
equipment back then— acquired the same
or a similar system using the LS3/5a, and
we were all in audio Nirvana.

Although numerous versions of this
speaker have been offered over the many
years since their introduction, the magic
I remembered from that first experience
was reawakened only once— when I
received the initial sample of the Falcons
and dropped the needle.

Herb’s review of the Falcon LS3/5a
represents so many of the things that
drew me and thousands more to the

classic and authentic LS3/5a that I find
no comment necessary other than Thank
You, Herb, for sharing your thoughts on
this tmly authentic version of a classic
masterpiece. Steve Davis

Big Ear Consulting

Rega Research DAC-R

Editor:

I read Jon Iverson’s review of the DAC-R
with interest, and more so as an engineer
whose firstjob, some 40 years ago, was
building tube (valve) guitar ampHfiers in a
professional audio company. So I fully un-
derstand his thoughts as to the voicing of
audio equipment— more so in the world
of musical equipment. In the DAR-R:

As with any electronic audio unit, there
is a balance between electronic measure-
ments and voicing (sonics), and I feel
this review highlights the right balance
achieved with the Rega DAC-R

There are a couple of points I’d Hke to
comment on:

Optical input at 96kHz: We have
changed the TosLink receiver to a part,
from a different manufacturer, that has
better performance at high sample rates,
thus making the optical inputs more
rehable. The comment concerning optical
leads still stands, though.

Power-supply coryecture and the
120Hz (lOOHz UK) leakage: I measured
the power supply feeding the analog
supply of the DAC integrated circuits
in a current production unit, and found
the lOOHz (l20Hz US) ripple rejection
measured 78.8dB below the unregulated
supply— this being a typical figure for the
Hnear regulator used in the Rega DAC.
Just to confirm that the measurements
were what I’d expected, I looked up the
regulator in my tmsty ol’ National Semi-
conductor Voltage Regulator Handbook, and
the typical ripple-rejection ratio for the
regulator in question is 80dB— so in the
context of the overall design, I person-
ally feel that all’s fine here. The supply
pins on the DAC integrated circuits
are decoupled using low-ESR polymer
capacitors, which helps.

Taking into account Jon’s musical
slant to the review, and drawing on my
experience of tube guitar ampHfiers, I
know only too weU how power-supply
character can affect the sound of a piece
of equipment— anyone who knows the

THIS issue: Wilson Benesch, Falcon Acoustics,
Rega Research, and Ayre Acoustics comment
on our reviews of their products.

circuit of a typical 1950s/’60s tube ampH-
fier with a tube rectifier will know just
how much the effectiveness and traits of
the power supply can enhance the sonics
of a unit.

As regards filters. I’ve taken a look over
my shoulder to see what filter is currently
selected on the DAC-R in my front-
room system, and it’s Filter 3— snap! Out
of interest, this system includes a 6BQ5
(EL84) based amplifier— that’s for anyone
who’s seen the inscription on the PCB
inside. Terry Bateman

Electronics Design Engineer,
Audio Guru, Purveyor of Audio Mojo
Rega Research

Ayre Acoustics AX-5 Twenty

Editor:

Many thanks to Art Dudley for fuUy
engaging with the Ayre AX-5 Twenty so
that Stereophile readers can understand the
improvements over the original, which
Art had described as “one of the three
best, most musical, and most human-
sounding soHd-state amps I’ve ever
heard.”

Apologies to Art for not making it
clear that, just as with the Ayre R-series
products, the Twenty version of our
AX-5 is not merely an upgrade. The
differences are so great that bringing the
previous model up to the new design
requires a complete replacement of both
audio circuit boards: same classic chassis,
all new circuitry. It is tmly a new model
of amplifier.

In the review. Art pointed out that
the AX-5 Twenty’s inputs need to be set
up before use. This step was a conscious
choice on our part. Our setup gives the
ovraer the abihty to make custom names
for the inputs that are in use (as Art did)
and disables the unused inputs. This
makes for much more pleasant operation
over the life of the AX-5 Twenty, but we
can see how it could be sHghtly frustrat-
ing for a reviewer who has the product
for only a short time.

In closing, while we are a bit disap-
pointed that the AX-5 Twenty fell just
short of sending Art mnning naked
through the streets of his vHlage, perhaps
it is for the best. This does, however, set
an excellent goal for our next product.

Charles Hansen and the Ayre design team
Ayre Acoustics

stereophile.com ■ August 2015

125

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stereophiie.com August 2015

129

AURAL
ROBERT

BY ROBERT BAIRD

Free bassing

THERE'S ONLY TWO KINDS OF MUSIC: THE BLUES AND ZIPPETY DOO-DAH.

—TOWNES VAN ZANDT

"James was to bass what
Jimi Hendrix was to guitar."

JAMES JAMERSON JR.

C learly, they feel unloved and unappreciated . . .

and perhaps they’re right. Despite doods hke Krist
Novoselic, JPJ, LemmyJohnEntwistle, and Sir
Paul, and female voices such as Tina Weymouth,
Carol Kaye, and Kim Deal— not to mention the many
jazz greats, hke Charles Mingus— bass players, if not quite
the butt of jokes that dmmmers have long been (Google
“dmmmer jokes” and enjoy), are musicians too, you know.
[sniffl Search on “bass player” and up comes a website with
the huffy, slightly defensive URL forbassplayersonly.com.
On Buzzfeed.com, under the heading “21 Straggles
Only Bass Players Understand,” some choice entries
read: “You constantly get asked do you play bass
because it’s easier?” “Someone will inevitably ask
you to do ‘that Seinfeld bass thingy’.” “After you’ve
played your set your friends tell you, ‘You guys were
great but I couldn’t really hear you.’” Yet, every once
in a while, someone remembers the bass player. Or
you just can’t help but notice them.

As I hsten to the Alabama Shakes’ new record,

Sound & Color, pressed on clear vinyl— slightly
warped, with a spindle hole not cleanly punched—
what stands out is how Zac Cockrell’s bass was
recorded, and the central role it plays in many of
the tunes, like the spacey “Gemini” or the obvious
single, “Gimme All Your Love,” in which Brittany
Howard unleashes her titanic voice. While the
spacious, psychedehc, slow-burn groove of Sound & Color
is the perfect way to defeat any expectations of sophomore
slump, Cockrell’s bass keeps appearing more forward in
the mix than is usual in indie rock, at times even carrying
the melody. It reminded me, yet again, that the bass can be
more than mere underpinning.

After the recent death of Louis Johnson, another player
entered my consciousness when I began idly reading an
advance copy o{ Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adven-
tures in The Alice Cooper Group, a memoir by bassist Dennis
Dunaway (with Chris Hodenfeld; St. Martins Press, June
2015). Perhaps the most perceptive part of the book is when
Dunaway writes about the name the band took back in
Phoenix, Arizona, in their formative years.

“Michael, Neal, Glen, Alice and I all shared in the cre-
ation of our monster. ... So Ahce stepped into the shoes of
this creation and with astounding confidence too.

“In our eyes, as our creation strengthened, the duality of
the name as a band and as a character seemed well within
the public’s comprehension. Most people didn’t have much
of a problem figuring it out. In reality however, the band,
without fully reahzing it, had become a two-headed snake
with one head destined for amputation. . . .”

Unfortunately, when it comes to the band’s unceremoni-
ous and fairly cruel breakup in 1975, Dunaway pulls his
punches, and allows Vincent Furnier— (aka Alice Cooper),
the guy he’d been in bands with since teenagehood— shde

2ft MFUNKBROIHERS

irnrHTfflBy ’ * :

The Funk Brothers, James Jamerson, right.

completely off the hook.

“Alice Cooper had finally straggled to the top of the ght-
tery rock pile and it was time to negotiate a new recording
contract. This is when bands finally make any money. Drop-
ping out at this point would make zero sense. That contract
was negotiated for Ahce Cooper. But we were floored to
find out that we weren’t included. One day I was rock star.
The next day I was uninvited. Boom. Dealt out. Gone.”

The final bass-guitar reminder in recent days came from
writing the review of this issue’s Recording of the Month

(see p. 117)— Sly & the Family
Stone are big and powerful
on the newly released Live at
the Fillmore East, October 4th &
5th, 1968— und hearing again
the great Larry Graham, who
forever changed the world’s
perception of bass guitar:
from simple member of the
rhythm section to full-on
lead instrument.

All of these bass refer-
ences led me to think about
who finally brought lasting
respect to the bass, and
particularly of the electric
variety. That led to one man:
the inimitable, indomitable James Jamerson, who played
on 70 No.l R&B hits. An almost physical presence in the
2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown despite
having died in 1983, Jamerson was— with drummer Bennie
Benjamin and others— among the great instrumentalists
who plied their craft for little money and no royalties in
Motown’s rudimentary Studio A, aka “The Snake Pit.”
Jamerson’s chromatic leads, open notes, flat fives, and
overall timing and musicality remain unequaled. His
inventiveness is legendary. Just as Spooner Oldham once sat
down at the electric piano and, on the spur of the moment,
concocted the intro to Aretha Franklin’s classic recording of
“I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” Jamerson
just plucked out, on the spot, the notes to the intro of the
Temptations’ version of the Robinson/White hit, “My
Girl.” Like the rest of the Funk Brothers (what the Motown
house band called itself), Jamerson was not credited on a
Motown record until 1971, when he was listed as the “In-
comparable James Jamerson” on Marvin Gaye’s immortal
What’s Going On.

James Jamerson was not invited to play Motown’s 25th
Anniversary Special, taped in Los Angeles in March 1983.
He wasn’t even allowed backstage. After scalping a ticket,
he sat in the back, listening to other players copy his fines. It
surely broke his heart. ■

Music critic Robert Baird (robert.baird@sorc.com) welcomes a
vibrant discourse on music and musicians.

130

August 2015 ■ stereophile.com

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